Thursday, June 09, 2005
Seniors return to God just as they did in their youth
Do people become more religious as they enter into late life? If so, why does this happen? And does religion mean the same thing to them now as it did when they were young?
There are no simple answers to these questions, but they offer a wealth of fascinating implications for both personal reflection and scholarly research.
Michelle Dillon is an Irish-born sociologist who teaches at the University of New Hampshire. Her work is useful to those who seek to understand the field of aging; at the same time, on a smaller scale, it inspires us to think of our own individual situations and those of people we know.
Dillon contradicted or undermined a number of widely held impressions. One of these is historical: "We tend to exaggerate how religious people were in the past, and we tend to underestimate how religious they are today." (At the same time, there has been a certain decline in religious participation in the United States since the peak year of 1958.)
Within this general historical context, can we say that people tend to become more religious as they grow older? Dillon's answer to this is two-fold. As they approach late adulthood, Americans tend to return to the level of religious practice that marked their early adult years. But, in general, they do not become more religious than they were then.
This conclusion is somewhat unexpected. One might easily suppose that, in most cases, the prospect of death would lead people to reflect on God and the afterlife, and to become more actively religious than ever before.
But Dillon's research does not support this impression. The level of activity is set at the beginning of adult life, and the experience of age does not tend to lead people to surpass it. We should note, in passing, that women tend, at every stage of life, to be more devout than men.
A major factor complicating this discussion, however, is the question of spirituality. This concept is notoriously difficult to define, but is frequently associated with some sort of vague interest in non-material reality.
In her research, Dillon reaches for a more precise definition of spirituality, one that includes not only an encounter with the holy, with a higher power than oneself, but also an attempt to act upon that encounter. The experience of transcendence triggers the kind of activity that can be called spiritual.
Among the values created by both religion and spirituality, Dillon cites generativity as one of the most significant. Generativity is the productive principle that helps people to grow and share themselves with others.
As people approach later life, their interest in spirituality does increase. This may or may not be connected with religious practice. After all, the goal of religion is to support and stimulate the spiritual life, and that is the way it works for many people.
For others, however, the institutional aspects of religion have become alienating, even obstacles to their spirituality. Even though it may mean a loss of social and community support, they often break with their church, synagogue or temple in order to find inner freedom.
Whatever its level may be, is this new religious or spiritual activity inspired by fear of death? Professor Dillon, who believes that the answer, generally speaking, is no. Rather, the most anxious people tend to be those who half believe in an afterlife, but lead a completely secular existence.
These "half-believers," though, are not alone in their fear of dying. Almost everyone dreads the prospect of a long, drawn-out and painful death.
By Richard Griffin
Thursday, June 9, 2005
Richard Griffin of Cambridge is a former officer of Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services. He can reached by e-mail at rbgriff180@aol.com or by calling 617-661-0710.
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