Soulful Aging

Book excerpt: This book seeks to map out the parameters and boundaries of soulful aging and explores philosophical and theological perspectives on the way we grow older. It extends work in the behavioural and social sciences which address the diverse and contested connections of older people’s inner voices and social relationships. Building on qualitative and quantitative research in age studies and gerontology, this volume extends concepts and stories that attest to the joys, tensions, and paradoxes that mount with advancing years. From ten authors versed in writing from multi-disciplinary and inter-professional perspectives with clarity, the book conjoins and challenges behavioural thoughts-and-actions and religious/spiritual spheres of late-life human development previously presented in the context of positive and productive aging as well as healthful, wise, and successful ‘Saging’. Interdisciplinary and insightful, Soulful Aging will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of religion, theology, philosophy, psychology, gerontology, and sociology. It was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging.