1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996449437903316

Autore

Corwin Anna I

Titolo

Embracing Age : How Catholic Nuns Became Models of Aging Well

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Brunswick : , : Rutgers University Press, , 2021

©2021

ISBN

1-9788-2231-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (203 pages)

Collana

Global Perspectives on Aging

Disciplina

271.97

Soggetti

Aging - Religious aspects - Catholic Church

Aging - United States

Monastic and religious life of women - United States

Nuns - Religious life

FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / General

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Introduction -- Part 1 Being Well in the Convent Prayer and Care in Interaction -- 1 Life in the Convent -- 2 Being Is Harder Than Doing The Process of Embracing Aging -- 3 Talking to God Prayer as Social Support -- 4 Care, Elderspeak, and Meaningful Engagement -- Part 2 Shaping Experience The Convent in Sociohistorical Context -- 5 Changing God, Changing Bodies How Prayer Practices Shape Embodied Experience -- 6 Spiritual Healing, Meaningful Decline, and Sister Death -- 7 Kenosis Emptying the Self -- Conclusion -- Appendix Transcription Conventions -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Embracing Age: How Catholic Nuns Became Models of Aging Well examines a community of individuals whose aging trajectories contrast mainstream American experiences. In mainstream American society, aging is presented as a "problem," a state to be avoided as long as possible, a state that threatens one's ability to maintain independence, autonomy, control over one's surroundings. Aging "well" (or avoiding aging) has become a twenty-first century American preoccupation. Embracing Age provides a window into the everyday lives of American Catholic nuns who experience longevity and remarkable health and



well-being at the end of life. Catholic nuns aren't only healthier in older age, they are healthier because they practice a culture of acceptance and grace around aging. Embracing Age demonstrates how aging in the convent becomes understood by the nuns to be a natural part of the life course, not one to be feared or avoided. Anna I. Corwin shows readers how Catholic nuns create a cultural community that provides a model for how to grow old, decline, and die that is both embedded in American culture and quite distinct from other American models. Open access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/