Abstract
The ageing population is a great challenge for the whole world including churches, Christian communities, Christian families and the so-called “Christian countries”. The respect and support for elderly people is almost a common rule of social life in developed countries regardless of religious views. But in the Christian world this obligation has very strong religious justification – obligation enshrined in the Commandments of Old (the fourth/fifth Commandment) and New (the second one of The Greatest Commandments of Love) Testaments. Therefore between the Christianity – understood as a set of different communities sharing their beliefs in Jesus Christ – and aging population there are many very different connections including among others: honour and respect, privilege, obligations, giving – receiving relations, duty, charity, solidarity, dependency. They are present both in the teaching and the practice of different Christian communities starting with Churches, through NGOs and Christian societies, ending with Christian families. The paper shows some of these connections. It also tries – based on a case of Poland – to answer the question whether the Christianity is ready to face the aging of global population.
Highlights
The ageing population is a great challenge for the whole world including churches, Christian communities, Christian families and the so-called “Christian countries”
It is important to underline that some legal acts regarding the relationships between Poland and some of protestant churches among various regulations in charity area have some paragraphs regarding propagating the idea of loving fellow creatures and helping them as well as promoting and popularising these attitudes towards people
Even if legal regulations and teaching of Christian churches’ themselves demand honouring, helping and caregiving for old people, the action towards seniors took by Christian communities and Christian societies especially are less observed
Summary
The ageing population is a great challenge for the whole world including churches, Christian communities, Christian families and the so-called “Christian countries”. Nowadays while the circumstances and demography are changing, Christianity needs to face the problem of ageing, both in its teaching and practical attitude towards a growing population of old people.
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