Making Out Jean Vanier

Authors

  • Carolyn Whitney-Brown St. Jerome’s University/University of Victoria Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/rst.19829

Keywords:

Jean Vanier, Kathryn Bond Stockton, L’Arche, de-metaphoring, community, patriarchy

Abstract

In early 2020, news broke of Jean Vanier’s manipulative sexual practices. Just months earlier, I had published two books about how people in Canada and around the world took up the vision of Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche, an international network of communities of people with and without intellectual disabilities. Throughout this past year, I could not stop thinking about the whole situation, trying to make out Jean Vanier even while I want to de-center him. I find unexpected inspiration in queer theorist Kathryn Bond Stockton’s evocative book, Making Out. This reflection ends with no conclusions, only an invitation to think together about Jean Vanier and seemingly benign patriarchy.

References

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Burghardt, Madeline. 2020. “Jean Vanier was revered, but revelations of abuse and manipulation should not come as a surprise.” The Globe and Mail. 27 February. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-jean-vanier-was-revered-but-revelations-of-abuse-and-manipulation/

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Whitney-Brown, Carolyn. 2019a. “Too Chicken to Cross the Road? Jean Vanier and Getting to the Other Side.” Critical Theology 1(4): 7–9.

———. 2019b. Sharing Life: Stories of L’Arche Founders. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.

———. 2019c. Tender to the World: Jean Vanier, L’Arche and the United Church of Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

White, Allon. 1993. Carnival, Hysteria, Writing: Collected Essays and Autobiography. Oxford: Clarendon.

Published

2021-05-14

Issue

Section

Reflections from the Field

How to Cite

Whitney-Brown, C. (2021). Making Out Jean Vanier. Religious Studies and Theology, 40(1), 122–130. https://doi.org/10.1558/rst.19829