The Contemporary Study of Religion and Spirituality Among the Elderly: A Critique

Much of the contemporary study of the intersection of aging, religion, and health is based on the assumption that religiousness and spirituality can be accurately measured by certain scales and measures. The further assumption is that these scales and measures are not biased toward any particular form of religious expression and can be used to measure these domains irrespective of the particular faith tradition of the respondent. I argue that indeed many of the most popular scales do contain a clear, underlying set of assumptions about what constitutes religiousness and spirituality and that this understanding is shaped by the same Protestant traditions that have shaped American civilization. By examining several of these scales, and then comparing the assumptions contained in the questions about the meaning of religiousness and spirituality with assumptions about these domains found in traditional Judaism, I come to two conclusions. First, that the scales do reflect a particular religious tradition, and second, that to understand the role of faith in the lives of older persons we must understand the specific faith traditions shared by the elders under study.