Theology Of Aging Research Articles

The Aging Church: An Ecclesiological Construction Based on the Theology of Aging

This article proposes the concept of an aging church as an ecclesiological construction that is based on the theology of aging. It begins with a concern about the tendency of the church to measure its “success” through its productivity, hence forgetting to reflect upon its dependence on God. Using lit­er­ature analysis and constructive methods, this article combines the aging theology from Autumn Ridenour, Kevin Barnard, and several other theologians with the ecclesiology of John Zizioulas and Michael Jinkins. Analysis of aging theology and ecclesiology are used as the basis for constructing the “aging church”. The thesis of this article is that the church that is aware of its aging also realizes its relational identity in God which can be lived through appreciation of its passive agency in balance with its active agency, as it should be in an aging individual person. The aging church does not specifically refer to the age of the church, but to the relationship with God which invites the church to embrace the past through re­pen­tance, realize its relational identity in the present, and renew itself with an eschatological orientation toward the future. Finally, eschatological hope in the passive role of the church of this kind helps the church to see its movements during a pandemic, even a post-pandemic stage so that they are not trapped in non-essential productivity.

A Practical Theology of Aging: Biblical Perspectives for Individuals and the Church

Aging is a gracious gift given by God to cause us to ask about and work on the real issues of life. The Bible presents three main themes on aging. Achieving old age is a Divine Tribute. People in the last half of life are to be honored and respected. Growing older brings about Definite Testing along with blessing. Adults in the last third of their lives can glorify God uniquely. New understandings and spiritual depth can be developed. The process of aging well can be a Distinctive Triumph. How we see the issue of ministry with older adults depends largely on our vision of the old. In a culture striving to remain youthful and avoid any evidence of growing old, we would do well to allow our values about aging to be shaped by the age-related themes found in Scripture.

Chapter 4: Needing to Make Room for Change: A Theology of Aging and Life

SUMMARY Building upon concepts drawn from Process Theology, this article suggests a practical theological approach to aging that recognizes the changing patterns of life, especially among older persons. Insights drawn from literature, philosophy, psychology, and scripture are included.

Chapter 3: A Practical Theology for Aging

SUMMARY After a brief look at contemporary liberal and evangelical approaches to the formation of theology, this paper suggests implications for constructing a practical theology of aging utilizing a praxis approach. Issues such as the life course, mental health, physical health, and spiritual formation are highlighted along with implications for the field of gerontology.

Chapter 6: Biblical Foundations for a Practical Theology of Aging

SUMMARY This article reviews Biblical sources pertaining to the elderly, particularly the frail elderly. Founded on these sources, implications for elderly with Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia are addressed through a personal perspective informed by writings of Christian mystics.

Book Review: Annotated Bibliography for Christian Social Ministries: Aging: Enabling the Elderly, Theology of Aging

Book Review: Annotated Bibliography for Christian Social Ministries: Aging: Enabling the Elderly, Theology of Aging

Coming Issues in the Pastoral Care of the Aged

In the context of a growing aging population, this paper begins with the notion that the traditional resources of pastoral care will remain relevant, cffective and basic. However, the Church must redefine its images of successful ministry to emphasize the inhercnt value of the gray church. Gerontological stud~es need to become integrated in the whole enterprise of theological education and should be recognized as both presenting a special opportunity for female clergy and for developing a new model of m~nistry. Discussed are three needs for adequate preparation for the pastoral care of the aged: (1) Training in group process, (2) Skills in conflict resolution, and (3) A theology of aging that rests on Grace rather than works and that separates aging as a process distinct from death and dying. Finally, the author insists upon the involvement of the aged as a prerequisite for authenticity in each of these areas.

Book reviews

Aging in American Society by James D. Manney, Jr., Ann Arbor: University of Michigan—Wayne State University, 1975. 230 pages. Why Survive? Being Old in America. By Robert N. Butler. New York: Harper and Row, 1975. 496 p. $15.00 Toward a Theology of Aging. A Special Issue of Pastoral Theology. Guest edited by Seward Hiltner. New York: Human Sciences Press, 1976. 79 pp. (93–181), with Index. The Catholic Parish: Shifting Membership in a Changing Church. By Thomas P. Sweetser, S. J.: Chicago, Illinois, Center for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1974. 134 pp. Cloth, $7.50; Paper, $3.95.

Workshop Participants: Conference on the Theology of aging

Workshop Participants: Conference on the Theology of aging

Preface to a practical theology of aging

To address theologically the issue of aging is to confront the problems of practical theology. The problems of aging give us an opportunity to begin afresh our reflections upon the nature of practical theology. A practical theology of aging must take experience seriously. It must use phenomenological description and empirical analysis to open up the surface and the depth dimensions of experience. But then the results of these labors must be correlated with a hermeneutics of Christian symbols. When the results of these endeavors are pooled, the key to meaningful aging emerges as learning to “care” for oneself, one's future, and the future of the race.

Religion and the aging process

This paper attempts to set forth what the author regards as the two closely inter-related basic principles. These have to do with a dialectical (as against a merely discrete) point of view on the place of “expansion” and “contraction” in human fulfillment, and toward a dialectical “theology of aging” which transcends both the sour and the sweet views of aging. Both these last, in fact, are suggested to be similar under the skin, and to be equally inadequate for essentially the same reasons.