Centre for Policy on Ageing



Spirituality and older women — exploring meaning through story telling
Author(s)	Mary O'Brien
Journal title	Journal of Religious Gerontology, vol 10, no 1, 1996
Pages	pp 3-16
Source	Haworth Document Delivery Center, Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580, United States.
Keywords	Spiritual characteristics [elderly] ; Older women ; Life span ; Death ; Memory and Reminiscence.
Annotation	The stories of thirty women, aged 60 to 70, members of an interfaith group, were gathered to explore their perceptions of spirituality. Several findings were consistent with those reported by contemporary women theologians: women's experiences influence their understandings of ageing and death; spirituality frequently goes beyond traditional religious forms; and the essence of spirituality is found in the integration of religious tradition, personal experience, and relationship to the world. Although they had a continuity of meaning and purpose in their lives, these women defined the critical task of later life as preparation for death, which was often interpreted in terms of oneness with nature, a view with implications for further theological understanding.
Accession Number	CPA-970717006 A
Classmark	EX: BD: BG6: CW: DB
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.