Aging, Religion, and Spirituality

Our concern here is how religion and spirituality interact with aging – how aging affects religion and spirituality and how spirituality and religion affect aging. Aging generally increases the ability to perceive the spiritual elements of experience and also motivation to engage in intentional spiritual development. Most sages are elders. For most people, there is strong continuity of religious participation (whether nonexistent, sporadic, or frequent) throughout adulthood, but this general picture masks a significant minority who struggle with doubt, disillusionment and alienation concerning religion. Still others spend their lives uninterested in either spirituality or religion. The physical and mental declines of late adulthood are often accompanied by increasing attention to spiritual experience and religious practices, both of which can be very helpful resources for coping with physical, mental, and social loss. Spiritual growth and development continues to be an attractive opportunity far into old age. Religious communities vary enormously in the extent to which they support the needs of elders to continue their spiritual growth and participation in the life of the religious community

Affect (linguistics · Alienation · Coping (psychology · Political science · Psychotherapist · Religious experience · Spiritual development · Spiritual growth · Spirituality · Medicine · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Religious studies · Social Psychology