New Directions in the Study of Late Life Religiousness and Spirituality

New Directions in the Study of Late Life Religiousness and Spirituality explores new ways of thinking about a topic that was once taboo but that has now attracted considerable attention from the gerontological community. It examines various approaches to methodology and definition that are used in the study of religion, spirituality, and aging. In addition, it explores the ways that gerontological research can highlight the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of older adults. The title addresses several approaches to issues of definition, exploring important questions that call for critical reflection such as the study of religion, spirituality, and aging beyond a focus on health and mortality to examine well-being more broadly in the context of the life experiences of older adults. The title examines older women’s responses to the experience of widowhood and to the question of whether their religious beliefs were affected by the experience; how social context influences our decisions and our interpretations of people’s religious beliefs; the ways that people caring for a spouse with dementia rely on religious coping; and a study that asks whether these types of coping produce different outcomes for caregivers and how people adjust to bereavement as a function of their beliefs about an afterlife.