Spirituality and Older Women: Exploring Meaning Through Story Telling

The stories of thirty women, ages 60 to 80, members of an interfaith lay group of women, were gathered to explore their perceptions of spirituality. Several findings were consistent with those reported by contemporary women theologians: women's experiences and thus their stories are less linear and more cyclical in construction, often influencing their understandings of aging and death; spirituality frequently goes beyond traditional religious forms; and the essence of spirituality is found in the integration of religious tradition, personal experience and relationship to the world. Although a continuity of meaning and purpose existed over each one's lifetime, these women defined the critical task of later life as preparation for death, which was often interpreted in terms of oneness with nature, a view with implications for further theological understandings.