Community and diversity: The tyranny of normality

Hauerwas explores dimensions of the question: ‘what is normal.’ Exploring the ideas of normality and difference he offers a critique of the ‘principle of normality.’ What is normality? Normality as it is often formulated can be dangerous for people with developmental disabilities. ‘The most stringent power we have over another is not physical coercion but the ability to have another accept our definition of them.’ Hauerwas argues that what is required is not a common norm but a form of community which respects diversity and seeks to enable each member to accept the ‘gift of differentness,’ and to accept that difference without regret. © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

Duke Scholars

Author Stanley M. Hauerwas Divinity School