Me, myself, and God: Religion as a psychocultural resource of meaning in later life

Abstract

The present paper addressed the different meanings attached to religion as cultural resource in the course of life. Indeed, abundant cultural research has confirmed that religion could be a powerful symbolic system that shapes people’s beliefs and attitudes. Its significance may depend on contextual factors and may vary over time and place, thus showing different implications across cultures and group cohorts. To better investigate such assumption, this paper involved a group of elderly believers (convinced Catholic believers and converted to Buddhism believers) as to analyze the role played by religion in their life experience. Narrative interview, content, and diatextual analysis helped reconstructing different cultural interpretative repertoires of religion in late life: a source to answer to the essential questions about life, an anchor to face the present and the future, a sociocultural resource for well-being.