Spiritual Development in the Fourth Quarter of Life

SUMMARY

Spirit, the activating or essential principle influencing a person, and body interpenetrate each other but do not dominate each other in predictable ways. Normal aging is neither a failure of the human spirit nor a failure in the body's Biology. The spirit becomes more apparent as a result of spiritual development.

The fourth quarter of life covers age 75 to 100 years. Prior to age 75, the human spirit undergoes significant developmental events: a crisis of meaning which may result in conversion or more commonly stripping or shedding; transitions, including loss of clearly defined roles and loss of the sense that the individual's life makes a difference.

One motif applied by our culture to old age is the “iconic illusion”; however, it is evident that in some respects this motif has limited application to the fourth quarter of life. “Meaning making” is, in fact, enhanced in the fourth quarter of life, given reasonable levels of cognitive health. The desire and ability to make sense out of existence, to draw together an understanding of a meaningful life trajectory, is best done in the fourth quarter of life. The dominant sense of time in the fourth quarter of life particularly facilitates spiritual development.     

The Defiant Power of the Human Spirit: Mental Health in Later Life

SUMMARY

This paper sets forth a wholistic perspective on the aging process, that clearly acknowledges the struggles and tensions between both the positive and decremental aspects of aging encountered in this journey. It speaks eloquently of the overarching tapestry of our lives balanced against the precariousness and brevity of life's experience. It speaks of challenges of later life that are experienced as physical decrements progress. Against these are balanced the need for rituals and transcendent symbols to enable the person to move into the spiritual and find meaning in the journey. In presenting this picture of aging, Kimble moves beyond the biomedical paradigm and applying Frankl's material he clearly demonstrates the defiant power and potential of the human spirit in adjusting to and moving through and beyond suffering.     

Dwelling and Seeking in Late Adulthood: The Psychosocial Implications of Two Types of Religious Orientation

SUMMARY

This article summarizes quantitative findings and presents two illustrative case studies showing how religious dwelling and spiritual seeking evolve over the adult life course and relate to psychosocial functioning in late adulthood. The data come from the Institute of Human Development (IHD) longitudinal study of men and women. Religious dwellers tend to emphasize traditional forms of religious behavior whereas spiritual seekers emphasize innovative religious practices. In the IHD study, the religious involvement of the dwellers tended to be highly stable over the life course whereas spirituality gained in salience in the second half of adulthood. In late adulthood, religious dwelling was associated with maintaining close and warm relations with others and communal involvement, and during times of adversity, religiousness served as a buffer against the loss of life satisfaction. Spiritual seeking was associated with an emphasis on personal growth, creativity, and acquiring new knowledge. Spiritual growth was particularly characteristic of introspective individuals who in early adulthood experienced stressful life events.     

Depression and Spirituality in Australian Aged Care Homes

SUMMARY

A national survey of Australian aged care homes has found that between 40% and 60% of high care residents and 25% to 51 % of low care residents are depressed, depending on the method used to assess depression. While this survey did not specifically include items on spirituality, an analysis based the Geriatric Depression Scale question “Do you feel that your life is empty?” provides some insights into the type of person who may benefit from spiritual help.

The view is expressed that those committed to the provision of spiritual care must be more assertive in making the positive contribution to the reduction in depression that empirical research carried out over the last thirty years suggests is possible. The basic step of identifying those who are ready to talk about spiritual matters and who are depressed is offered as a starting point and some ways of doing this are described.     

Some Spiritually Significant Reasons for Gay Attraction to (Anglo-)Catholicism

Abstract

This qualitative study based on interviews with Anglican gay men suggests spiritually significant reasons for which many gay men in England, including gay Evangelicals, are attracted to Anglo-Catholicism or, more largely, to Catholic forms of spirituality. Catholic spirituality is more aware of the body and helps some of these men to make Christian sense of their sexual desires. The Catholic tradition also provides them with alternative patterns to the heteronormative ‘church family’ model of community life that Evangelical churches, in particular, like to offer. As a consequence Catholic spirituality may appear to be better equipped than its Protestant counterpart to help the interviewees re-imagine their place as gay men at the heart of the Church with a gift to offer.     

Celibacy and Free Love in Early Christianity

Abstract

Mainstream Christianity places the defence of marriage and the household at the centre of Christian identity. It is therefore noteworthy that in the first two centuries of Christianity marriage was attacked from a variety of standpoints as incompatible with full Christian commitment. The best documented attack came from the Encratite movement, which held that all Christians are called to a life of sexual abstinence. It first surfaces in the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, where Paul defends the right to marriage but treats his opponents with notable respect. It can be argued that Encratism follows from the Pauline Gospel, and that Paul, in refusing to follow the logic of position to this conclusion, was guilty of inconsistency and timidity. Marriage was also attacked by those who wished to replace marriage with sexual communism. Epiphanes, On Righteousness, attacks marriage as part of a system of exclusive property rights that contradicts the original will of the Creator. Epiphanes was much indebted to the Cynic movement, as Encratism was also. Both Encratism and so-called ‘libertinism’ shared the same rejection of the narrow interests and the traditional family, and dreamt of a recovery of Paradise. Whether this recovery was attained by renouncing sex or by liberating it can be seen as a secondary question, where opposite views could be held in the context of the same radical interpretation of the Gospel, an interpretation that deserves serious attention even today.     

The journey of gestational surrogacy: religion,spirituality and assisted reproductive technologies

This article discusses the intersection of women’s experiences with the assisted reproductive technological practice of gestational surrogacy and spirituality and religion. During the interviews of eight gestational surrogates themes of spirituality-, religion- and faith-based language emerged as these women shared their narratives of assisted reproductive technologies in this Canadian study. Professionals supporting women before, during and after the experience of gestational surrogacy need to be mindful of the significance of spirituality and religion in third party reproduction practices for many women. In discussing these topics with gestational surrogates counsellors, child and youth care practitioners, faith leaders, social workers, and educators need to remain open and attentive to a multiplicity of diverse theological negotiations.     

Sport and children’s spirituality: an Australian perspective

The benefits of sport and physical activity are endorsed by a number of professionals as a means of improving children’s health and their sense of well-being, and their unity with the natural world, other people and the Transcendent. For children, sport is a spiritual source of joy and wonder. Using Champagne’s ‘spiritual modes of being’, my recent study of Victorian children demonstrated their heightened sensory awareness, enriched relationships and robust sense of personal identity, arising from active and passive participation in sport. The children in the study seemed to benefit in each of these areas from Australian culture’s high value of sporting participation and achievement.     

The spiritual care of sick children: reflections from a pilot participation project

The authors are a multi-disciplinary team of chaplains, one with a counselling qualification, and an academic with a research background in spirituality and youth work. A pilot participation project undertaken at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (UK) focused on increasing the understanding of the spiritual needs of sick children and young people and involving children and young people in improving the service and provision of spiritual and religious care to them. Views from children, young people and parents were sought with the intention of developing resources and training that help facilitate the meeting of spiritual and religious needs of children and young people in hospital. Within the wider chaplaincy team are chaplains from the six major world faiths and this project considers spiritual needs of children and young people who perceive themselves as belonging to a faith group or not. Reflections from the pilot include identifying ten principles and practices to inform the spiritual care of sick children and proposing the concept of interpretive spiritual encounters as a tool for spiritual care. The pilot study indicated that being more proactive in offering spiritual care enhanced the quality of service offered by Chaplaincy.     

Religiosity and treatment response to antidepressant medication: a prospective multi-site clinical trial

The present study examined the relationship between religiosity/spirituality and treatment response to antidepressant medication (citalopram). One-hundred and forty-eight Caucasian and African-American adults with uncomplicated major depression were treated with citalopram (20–60?mg/day) over an eight-week period in a prospective multi-site clinical trial. Treatment response was assessed weekly with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Religiosity (i.e., religious behaviours) and spirituality (i.e., spiritual well-being) were assessed at week 3. No significant associations between spirituality and treatment response were found; however, there was a strong curvilinear relationship between religiosity and treatment response. Compared to lower or higher levels of religiosity, a moderate level of religiosity was significantly associated with a higher likelihood of remission and greater reduction in severity of depression. This association was independent of social support, ethnicity, gender, education, and baseline depression severity. A moderate amount of religiosity appears to be independently associated with an enhanced treatment response to citalopram.