About
The Project & the Researcher
Dr. Keith Dow
I’m Keith, a theologian and pastor serving with Karis Disability Services in Canada. A few years ago, I wrote Formed Together: Mystery, Narrative and Virtue in Christian Caregiving, sharing stories from my experience supporting others. But it’s even more important to hear directly from people themselves.
When the University of Birmingham launched its Psychology Cross-Training for Theologians fellowship, I asked: “What does this mean for people with intellectual disabilities?”
Since then, I’ve had the chance to interview eleven Christian adults with intellectual disabilities about how they think about God and themselves. It’s been a meaningful and sometimes challenging journey.
The Fellowship
In 2023, Keith began the fellowship at the University of Birmingham, funded by the John Templeton Foundation. The Psychology Cross-Training for Theologians fellowship brought together theologians and psychological scientists to explore how social and cognitive psychology might deepen theological understanding.
Keith’s question for the fellowship: What might this exploration look like for people with intellectual disabilities—people who are often excluded from both theological and psychological research?
“Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.”
The Images of God Project
In the Christian tradition, all people are made in the image of God (Imago Dei). We are created and creative beings, connecting with God not only through words but through art, movement, and other expressions that open insight beyond spoken language.
For his fellowship project, Dr. Keith Dow collaborated with eleven Ontario-based Christian adults with intellectual disabilities. Through a photovoice exercise and journaling, semi-structured interviews, accessible measures of God-concept and self-esteem, and collage-making, participants reflected on how they perceive God and themselves.
Their reflections offer glimpses into how God’s presence is experienced in everyday life—in relationships, nature, memories, scripture, and sacred practices.
Methodology
Photovoice Exercise
Before meeting, participants took photos that reminded them of God and composed reflective journals—sometimes with the help of support staff or family members.
Guided Interviews
Participants reflected on their images and explored how they experience God's presence in everyday life in semi-structured, accessible conversations.
God-Representation Exercise
Participants viewed images representing five divine traits—Limitless, Authoritarian, Mystical, Benevolent, and Ineffable (LAMBI)—rating each on a visual scale.
Self-Esteem Questionnaire
Participants completed an accessible, adapted version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale.
Collage-Making
Participants created a personal collage using a shadow silhouette of their own head, selecting magazine cut-outs, stickers, and other visual materials—while listening to their favourite music, if they wished.
Relational Meaning-Making
Rather than interpreting participants' work from a distance, the research emphasized listening closely to how participants themselves described their experiences and theological insights.
What Emerged
Participants connected God with nature, friendship, mission and service, family, sacred ritual, and meaningful moments. Many related to the interplay of light and shadow and the changing of the seasons.
Several participants demonstrated significant understanding of theological principles and deep biblical knowledge. For most, their theology was not abstract, but embodied and grounded: a reflection of lived experience and relational trust, not just doctrinal explanation.
These creative expressions were displayed at the culminating Art and Vespers service and at the Art on the Wall exhibition at Martin Luther University College. They are archived here as a record of faith through visual theology.