IT FEELS like it wasn’t very long ago that the Church’s engagement with issues around autism and neurodivergence was pretty much non-existent. Our understanding has developed enormously in a relatively short space of time, which has simultaneously made apparent the amount of work still to do. John Allister’s debut book offers a compelling, challenging, and often courageous addition to the journey.

Allister is the vicar of a suburban parish in Nottingham and the founder of Neurodiverse Church. He is, he now realises, an autistic person (and he explains why he prefers this “identity-first” language rather than the oft-heard “person with autism” alternative). He invites the Church to learn to love neurodiversity, and draws on his own personal journey of how this has affected him. He does so with honesty, humour, and scholarship.

Allister begins by helping the reader to understand autism. He challenges the many misconceptions and prejudices, and covers topics such as the autistic spectrum, body language, stimming, sensory difficulties, and overwhelm.

Allister’s scientific background comes to the fore here. He has a natural grasp of data and statistics, and the ability to communicate these succinctly and accessibly. He then goes on to think more deeply about autism, before exploring what it means to be an autistic Christian. He provides a robust “autistic theology of autism” before exploring how autistic people can thrive, and how we might become a more neurodiverse Church.

The chapters of this book are brief and concise. Many of them are letters that the author wrote to his younger self once he had come to understand he was autistic. We learn something of the challenges that “PJ” (Past John) encountered, which continue to shape “Future John” today. Allister’s vulnerability is brave and often poignant.

Allister’s theology and tradition are confidently Evangelical, and much of what he writes assumes a broadly Evangelical audience. Some of the examples that he gives will not be easily transferable to other traditions. But this is not a criticism: he writes from his own experience instead of making assumptions about other people’s experiences and traditions. The book is deeply grounded in scripture. In one chapter, the author explores a biblical metaphor of bricks and stones to help the reader to think about what it means to be autistic; it forms an excellent short Bible study in its own right.

The final chapter offers 20 top tips for being a neurodiverse Church. Allister’s aim is to “help the church become, more and more, a place where autistic folks are fully valued, loved, included and released into using their unique gifts in the kingdom of God.” Reading this as someone who is neurotypical, I have been educated and challenged in equal measure; it would be hard not to be.

The Revd Daniel Sandham is Vicar of St Paul’s, Winchmore Hill, and Area Dean of Enfield, in the diocese of London.

Faith, Hope and Autism: Learning to love neurodiversity
John Allister
SCM Press £16.99
(978-1-78622-722-5)
Church Times Bookshop £13.59