ABSTRACT
The development of the social model of disability is often set against the medical model. Nevertheless, these two ways of understanding disability hold two beliefs in common: life with a disability is difficult, and therefore life for people with disabilities could be better. Using the Mountain Manifesto Matthew's version of the beatitudes and it argues that our lives can be transformed by the promise that God is working in the here and now. The disabling effect of societal oppression has been highlighted by the disability rights movement, and its academic variant disability studies. Moltmann uses the concept of a horizon' developed by twentieth-century German Philosopher Hans Gadamer to explain the way promises work to create hope. According to Moltmann's framework of promise, Jesus explicitly identifies what is on the horizon of hope. Biblical hope strikes at the heart of a narrative of oppression which dominates the social model.
