Dissertation note: Ashley not as object but (God's) friend -- Book outline -- Situating the text: methodological assumptions -- Situating the author: a project grounded in l'Arche -- A new approach to an old dilemma: the "Ashley treatment" and its respondents -- Ashley x -- Ashley's embodiment -- The Ashley treatment -- The parent's motivations -- Other perspectives -- Responses in support: serving everyone's best interests -- Those opposed: a medical fix for a social ill -- Conclusion: Ashley under the medical gaze -- Exposing the power of medicine through a Christian body politics -- A caveat: cracks in the Baconian edifice -- To relieve the human condition: the triumph of the Baconian project and technological biomedicine -- The medical model of disability -- Baconian biomedicine as one of the powers: a Christian view of the body -- Excursus: on suffering (from) disability -- Conclusion -- Disability, society, and theology: the benefits and limitations of the social model of disability -- The promises and perils of the social model of disability -- The social model: from spoiled identity to disability pride -- The social model: a critique -- Theology and the social model -- The disabled god -- Spirit and the politics of disablement -- Conclusion: from self-representation to friendship -- No longer slaves but friends: the recognizing power of friendship -- A theology of friendship -- The nature of philia -- Theological foundations: God's gift of friendship -- Christian friendship: beyond sameness and "equality"--No longer slaves but friends: philia and the gospel of John -- Asymmetry and friendship -- Reciprocity and mutuality -- The power of mutuality: receptivity and the body -- Friendship as recognition -- Conclusion -- The church as community of friends: embodying the strange politics of the kingdom -- The politics of dependence of the community of friends -- The truthful narrative of the ecclesial self -- The strange polis of the kingdom of God -- Practicing an alternative politics -- Practices: bodily political rituals -- Footwashing: the theologic of the kingdom -- Conclusion -- Beholding the politics of the impossible: l'Arche as an embodiment of the church as a community of friends -- The story of l'Arche: founded on pain and providence -- L'Arche as a habitus of friendship and recognition -- Vanier's theology and spirituality of friendship -- A community of recognition: core members as teachers and exemplars -- L'Arche as counter-culture -- Footwashing: practicing the politics of the impossible -- Footwashing in l'Arche -- Receiving and undergoing the gift of God's friendship -- Conclusion -- Implications and contributions of this project