Costly Vulnerability: Rethinking Mystical Openness in Disability Theology

Both mystical theology and disability theology frequently celebrate vulnerability as a site of divine encounter and relational transformation. Mystical traditions portray vulnerability as openness to God, while disability theologians such as Thomas Reynolds reclaim vulnerability as a shared human condition that fosters interdependence and belonging. Yet when vulnerability is universalized as a spiritual virtue, its political and structural dimensions can disappear from view. This paper argues that the theological valorization of vulnerability risks romanticizing conditions of marginalization if it fails to distinguish between vulnerability imposed by injustice and vulnerability freely embraced in solidarity. Drawing on disability theology, liberation theology, and the writings of Julian of Norwich, the paper proposes the concept of costly vulnerability—a chosen relinquishment of power undertaken for the sake of justice. Julian’s prayer for the “three wounds” provides a mystical model of vulnerability that links spiritual transformation with ethical participation in the healing of the world.