A Christian perspective on old age
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Author: John Schofield. John is a former Principal of an Anglican Ministerial Training Scheme |
I was going to call this Towards a Theology of Old Age, but have recognised that that is too grandiose a title (or undertaking). But in the rest of this article I hope that a combination of my own reflections, and some consideration of the biblical record about old age, will provide some pointers to how we approach old age as thinking Christians. And I find it slightly ironic that I'm writing this as a white European male in his late 70s, who, apart from some physical impairment, doesn't actually feel old, yet who recognises that not many decades ago my current age would have been well in excess of average male life expectancy. But there is also ambiguity here. While mentally I don't feel old, when I find it difficult to climb stairs then I have to recognise that this is age related impairment.
I was once sent a picture of a grey haired person, with an accompanying text from Proverbs: 'Gray[1] hair is a crown of glory.' This was reassuring as I was in the final stages of going grey. Mind you, the rest of the verse (Proverbs 16.31) was missing: 'it is gained in a righteous life'. And I was not (am not?) sure that this truly describes me. (This is not the place to go into the theology of righteousness and justification. But while my brain has long known one thing, my heart hasn't always felt the same.) But perhaps that's not the point. The acceptance of a new stage of life - however full of vitality we might feel at the time - is a significant step. For me, it was a positive one. For many, sadly, it speaks of diminishment.
That was some 15 years ago now. More recently, a couple of years ago I stepped back at the age of 75 from a significant role in my local church which was to do with its provision of study and learning opportunities (calling on over two decades of working as a theological educator and in ministerial formation). Was I right to do so?
Factors at the time included wanting to give room to a younger generation; a personal sense of achievement and fulfilment after significant failure; a sense of not necessarily being able to keep up with theological development, and of not wanting to impose what might be dated models on what the congregation needed. Interestingly, I was keen to keep going with a small group which wanted to express the contribution of liberal, open, questioning theology in an accessible way, nor did I stop reading theology, nor doing spiritual accompaniment. In a sense I suppose what I was doing was standing back from the organisational side of things; the personal intellectual, questioning search - though needing occasional stimulus - is unaffected and as strong as ever.
The place of the older person in society can be something of a contested space. As is so often the case it is difficult to distinguish what is cultural from what is essential to a Christian understanding. For instance, within many societies there is respect and reverence for the old and the wisdom they carry.
An example of this cultural formation is that for many years I could not stop my elder nephew - well into his forties - calling me Uncle John. But this was because he had spent many years working in communities where the elderly were honoured, and he wanted to carry that with him into our relationship, whereas I was working within a more egalitarian mindset.
On the other hand, there is often something verging on contempt for the elderly, whose views might be deemed those of a dinosaur, especially in an age of rapid change in knowledge, technology and common mores, leading the old to be sidelined, hidden, forgotten.
If we are psychosomatic wholes how does physical diminishment affect the whole me? Am I as me diminished because I can no longer do things I used to do, loved doing? Do I allow my physical diminishment to affect my sense of me? Does it affect others' sense of me? Do I see others' diminishment as affecting my view of them?
Biblical perspectives
Until I started to research the biblical text, my assumption was that outside the psalms and the wisdom literature there is little testimony to the question of age. But this is not the case. Though we might not know exactly what to make of the incredibly long lives of the patriarchs as recorded in the early chapters of Genesis - apart from the obvious conclusion that in the foundation stories, length of years is generally counted a blessing, and not a curse - the histories and prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures are quite positive – if sometimes surprised – about old age.
An early example of this is Sarah bearing Abraham a son, despite their old age (Genesis 21.1-7), which brought laughter to Sarah (Genesis 21.7), and the slightly earlier promise in Genesis 15.15 that Abraham shall be buried in good old age (in his case, 175: Genesis 25.8).
There are other examples of people who have been favoured by God dying at a good old age (Gideon, Judges 8.32; David, 1 Chronicles 29.28), or being nourished in old age (Naomi in Ruth 4.5). On the other hand, 1 Samuel 2.31 reminds us of the punishment of the house of Eli, where no one will live to old age.
More in line with the earlier observations about cultural respect for the old is the commandment in the Holiness Code of Leviticus: ‘You shall rise before the aged and defer to the old, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord’. (Leviticus 19.32).
When we turn our attention to what the prophets have to say, first and foremost are Joel’s words (Joel 2.28); ‘Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, / your old men shall dream dreams, / and your young men shall see visions’, words which are taken up by Peter in his address to the people on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2.17-21). Interesting in this passage is the reversal of the normal expectations concerning who shall dream, and who shall prophesy. In line with this positive attitude to old age is a word from Zechariah (8.4) that ‘Old men and women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand because of their great age.’ Isaiah sees God as being gentle to the old: ‘Listen to me, O House of Jacob ... even to your old age I am he, even when you turn grey I will carry you.’ (Isaiah 46.3/4).
In the Psalms and wisdom literature there is both hope and questioning. In Job, Eliphaz tells Job that, even though God reproves, ‘You shall come to your grave in ripe old age’ (Job 5.26), though Job later expresses a lament that regularly occurs in this literature: ‘Why do the wicked live on, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?’ (Job 21.7). This concern about both inequality and fear of abandonment is reflected in several of the psalms: ‘Do not cast me off in the time of old age, do not forsake me when my strength is spent.’ (Psalm 71.9), and later in the same Psalm, ‘So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to all generations to come.’ (71.18)
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Psalm 92 (12-15 passim) is quite positive: ‘the righteous flourish like the palm tree…In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap, showing that the Lord is upright’, whereas Psalm 90 strikes a more negative approach: ‘The days of our life are seventy years / or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; / even then their span is only toil and trouble; / they are soon gone, and we fly away.’ (Psalm 90.10). This is much more akin to the spirit of Ecclesiastes: ‘It is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us, for this is our lot.’ (5.18,19); ‘for who knows what is good for mortals while they live the few days of their vain life, which passes like a shadow’ (6.12); and ‘there is nothing better for people under the sun, than to eat and drink and enjoy themselves for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun’. (Eccles 8.15) Some verses towards the end of Ecclesiastes (!2.1-9) offer a range of quite allusive and elusive metaphors, which seem to point towards the losses associated with age, culminating in the final appearance of ‘Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, all is vanity’ (Ecclesiastes 11.8).
Proverbs is much more positive, and reflects the idea found earlier in the Hebrew Scriptures connecting godly living with a good old age: ‘My child, do not forget my teaching, / but let your heart keep my commandments; / for length of days and years of life / and abundant welfare they shall give you.’ (3.1-2); ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, / and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight, / for by me your days will be multiplied, / and years will be added to your life.’ (9.10-11); and ‘the fear of the Lord prolongs life, / but the years of the wicked will be short.’ (10.27)
There is at least one occasion when the potential arrogance of youth is reflected in the Psalms: ‘I understand more than the aged, / for I keep your precepts.’ (Psalm 119.100)
The Hebrew Scriptures thus present a mixed account of the blessing, hope and worry concerning the ageing process.
There is less about old age in the New Testament. In Luke 1.18, Zachariah questions the angel because ‘I am an old man and my wife is getting on in years’ (there are, of course, echoes of Abraham and Sarah in this passage). Jesus wants us not to be too concerned about these matters: ‘Which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life’ (Matthew, 6.27). Most of the other references are about behaviour both towards and by the older members of the church: ‘Do not speak harshly to an older man, but speak to him as to a father…to older women as mothers.’ (1 Tim 5.1-2), and; ‘Tell the older men to be temperate, serious, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance, likewise, tell the older women to be reverent in behaviour, not to be slanderers and enslaved to much wine; they are to teach what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind and submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited. (Titus 2, 2-3).
The later New Testament writers are concerned with some of the cultural issues of their time, to ensure that Christians are perceived well in the pagan world around them, while Jesus’ advice seems to be ‘don’t worry’.
The New Testament also talks about ‘elders’. These were clearly part of contemporary Jewish society (eg Matthew 7.3; Acts 4.5), and this may be reflected in the very early church’s usage (Acts 11.30, 15.4), though it is not clear what their role was, now whether age was a precondition of being accounted an elder. Perhaps they were perceived as people of wisdom, which as we have seen is often associated in the Hebrew Scriptures with old age. And in Revelation elders are amongst those worshipping in heaven (eg Revelation 4.10).
What can we take from this examination of the biblical record as we try to find pointers for a Christian approach to old age in the rapidly changing and challenging atmosphere of the twenty first century, in the ‘developed’ parts of our world?
Pointers to a theology of/approach to old age
From the study of scripture, we can say that our fundamental attitude should be to treat old age as a blessing and a pool of wisdom both for the individual and the community, while recognising that there are certain behaviours which should be avoided. There are, of course, the limitations of age, to which we will return.
The exploration of age in the scriptures concentrated on words such as age, old men, full of years, and so on. It is thus partial. Other parts of the biblical record need to be considered as well, prime among them the question of relationship and communality
Genesis 2.18 has God saying ‘It is not good that the man should be alone’. And so woman is created. Though on the face of it this is about the original couple, it’s actually about society and community - human beings only live in relationship. This is also the implication behind the first origin story’s ‘So God created humans In his own image,/ in the image of God he created them,/ male and female he created them’ (Genesis 1.27), and also underlies the horror of the first murder/fratricide. Put together with Paul's doctrine of the body, we find a strong emphasis on the interconnectedness of humanity within which the old are held as much as anyone else. We never cease to be part of the body of Christ; indeed, it could be argued that the elderly might fit the category of those less honourable parts which need to be treated with the greater honour (1 Corinthian 12.22), especially in an age which all too often confines the elderly to the invisibility of a care home. Equally pertinent is the injunction to ‘bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ’ (Galatians 6.2). This points to the importance of community and the corporate within any Christian approach to, or theology of, old age. To say this is not to deny the role of care homes for the elderly, but it is to recognise that the temptation to pass the buck of caring for the vulnerable can need challenging. In a context in which, unlike any of the Biblical record where old and young inevitably lived together, the whole question of care for the elderly in the community needs careful examination.
Old age inexorably raises the question of death. Any account we might make needs to be clear that death is an important and essential part of the human condition; it is not something to be feared, denied, or necessarily put off.
However, there is no doubting that disability and infirmity are a condition of our finiteness. The value and significance of the human body as the good creation of God, worthy of respectful care, is common to most Christian thinking, and should be a guiding light in any approach to theological thinking about old age/the ageing body. Equally, we need to be clear that though for most people some sort of impairment, physical or mental, is inevitable, those affected need to be guarded against the possibility of manipulation, such as the story of Isaac’s blindness being abused by Rachel and Jacob (Genesis 27).
A Christian approach to old age also has to be positive about the accumulated wisdom of the elderly, which should be treated as gift rather than as imposition on a younger generation. Of course, discernment is necessary to distinguish real wisdom from nostalgia or ossified attitudes. Nevertheless, the usefulness of the wisdom of grey hair needs to be a building block of any account of 'care for the elderly'. Properly perceived this is a function of how the old give back to society, rather than taking more.[2]
Part of the wisdom of the elderly is a greater readiness to live with mystery, doubt and unknowing, with continuing and deepening the search for the ‘something more’ that is at the heart of a thinking and questioning Christianity. A vivid expression of this came from a friend of mine – of my own generation - who is an Orthodox priest: ‘Getting it right with God – it’s what we’re here for’. Learning from these attitudes is a valuable part of any Christian tradition that takes from its storehouse things both old and new.
To emphasis this is not meant to encourage a passive approach to life, even if what we normally take for action is not available to some. When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer some years ago, I felt an immediate sense of ‘So begins life’s last and greatest adventure’. I was on the way towards discovering whether what I had spent a lifetime believing and praying, preaching and teaching would prove to be true – or otherwise. Again, this was not something waiting to happen to me; it was a moment and a movement that I sought to embrace with relish. As Eliot said (in an age less concerned with inclusivity), ‘Old men ought to be explorers’.[3] Old age is an opportunity for further developing and becoming models of human moral capacity – appreciating God’s moral attributes (love, justice, holiness etc) and trying to achieve a greater consonance with the gifts of the Spirit.
Sometimes it is said of old people that they have entered their second childhood. Perhaps Christian theology should not dismiss this as dismissing or downplaying of the effects of age, but instead welcome it, as it allows, following Paul Riceour’s line of thought, for second naïveté, or what we might call a second simplicity. On the face of it, this might be in opposition to the idea of wisdom and exploration. But it can also be a refinement, a greater letting go into God. As an old women is said to have replied to a question about what she was doing when she spent hours in front of an icon, ‘I just look at him and he just looks at me.’
We may also suggest that old age is a counterweight to the western activist culture of our time that we must always be busy, and that we are worthless unless we are ‘doing something’. I have known many who have turned the tribulations of old age – a failing body, being housebound – into an advantage; do less, pray more is not just about the individual and God, it is also a continuing contribution to the life of the Body of Christ, filling out in part the meaning of how the old give back to society.
None of this is to deny that there are also big challenges as we think about old age, particularly at a time when lives are longer but also potentially more distressing with increased age. The challenge of dementia and Alzheimer's is very real, not just for those appalled at what is happening to a relative or friend, but for the person themselves. But someone no longer 'recognisable' to us is still recognisable to God and of infinite worth. Perhaps it is important in this regard to consider the nature of the death of Jesus. Of course, none of us wishes to die in pain. Yet the crucified one did, reminding us that there is no depth of human experience, no fear of death, that has not been encompassed by God through the incarnation.
Other problems that need addressing include countering a sense among older people of not wanting to be a burden, or of worrying about what their worth (and their self-worth) is in society. Again, we must hold on to the recognition that everyone, whatever their state of physical or cognitive decline, is nevertheless still someone in the imago Dei. While that in turn might cause us to consider what we mean by that phrase, at the very least, a Christian theology of old age has to value the continuing significance of the human person as the good creation of God, worthy of respectful care. This is a function of the imago Dei, of the need for human dignity to be respected, irrespective of the individual’s role in society, or perceived proficiency or usefulness. This should be a guiding light in any approach to theological thinking about old age and the ageing body, alongside a recognition that there is a positive - if sometimes difficult to accept - side for the individual in accepting their vulnerability and the necessity of having to be served, which in turn relates back to the interconnectedness of people within the body of Christ.
The prolongation of life.
I do not expect to live to 'a great old age' as my body slows up in subtle but noticeable ways. And as the philosopher John Gray said on the BBC many years ago: 'Our lives have meaning because they are bounded by death.' I am not frightened by death itself (though like many another I am aware that the dying process may not be very easy). And yet I note that I am happy to have had my life prolonged by both treatment for cancer and the implantation of a heart pacemaker.
Basically, I have a simple belief that, as in life, God: so in death, God. But this does not absolve me from thinking more clearly and theologically about what it means to be an older, ageing, person, as I hope this essay shows.
As life expectancy has grown in the West/North in the last hundred years, so people are expecting to live longer, so that someone at, for instance, 75 may start to talk about their having twenty more years to live. While this is not an aspiration of mine, lifespan expectation has come with concomitant effects on health, social care and pension budgets. It is also shocking that in affluent Britain a bus ride across a city such as Sheffield can take you from one area to another where life expectancy varies by as much as ten years. A Christian response to this phenomenon must be about the justice of flattening that disparity, in favour, of course, of the poor.
Furthermore the prolongation of life presents other problems. What theologian and Biblical scholar Frances Young called in a recent talk[4], the medical model has its limitations, especially as it seems to view death as defeat, to be put off at all costs. And medical interventions to prolong life often don't appear to take into account the quality of the life that is being kept going. (At this point I recognise that we are encroaching on the whole end of life debate, which I shall leave aside as an allied but separate area). However, the words a wise priest-doctor once shared with me, in what I take to be a version of the Hippocratic Oath: ‘Thou shalt not kill, but neither shalt thou strive officiously to keep alive’, should be among the Christian principles to remember, especially in our current context.
Is the quest for longevity just a form of self-centredness? Or is about continuing as long as possible a life which is still full of interest (something I share as one who still sees the future as more exciting than the past), and the possibility of continuing to experience the joys of family and generations?
Whatever it may be, it is far removed from the hubris of the mega rich, amongst whom there are those who are willing to spend millions on trying either to prolong life or to slow down the ageing process, through medical, eating and other such techniques, plasma infusions or seeking the aid of computers/AI in transferring human personality to a sentient hologram, while others simply seek to extend the proof of healthy functioning by slowing down the aging process. The question about all of this is why? Chris Wareham at the University of Utrecht, who researches these questions, writes, not some much in answer as in explanation, that for such people: “Living longer increases the likelihood of greater wealth, which increases political power and inequality.” Ethical implications abound around this, especially in regard to who has access to such interventions and what the cost might be to society in general.[5]
Final thought
'In ageing you grow with me
In showing you settle me
In dying you rise in me'.[6]
Sometimes we need a poet's eye to express what it is we stumble towards understanding. So these lines from Nicola Slee, and especially the first one, resonate as I try to articulate a Christian approach to old age (and with it, death).
[1] NRSV, from which all biblical quotations are taken, is not consistent in its spelling of gray/grey!
[2] We probably have a lot to learn from as communities from ‘If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it’ (I Corinthians 12.26).
[3] T S Eliot, Burnt Coker from Four Quartets.
[4] Given at St Mark’s Broomhill and Broomhall, 12th October 2025
[5] Will billionaires be immortal? “Their wealth and power will keep growing” - News - Utrecht University
[6] Nicola Slee, 2022, Abba Amma, Improvisations on the Lord’s Prayer, Norwich:Canterbury Press
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John Schofield
Photo by Matt Bennett on Unsplash |
Author:
John Schofield.
John is a former Principal of an Anglican Ministerial Training Scheme