This contribution deals with the questions of how the processes of aging can be viewed from a Protestant theological perspective. It first presents potent images of age and aging from the realms of culture and science and probes their normative implications. Then it criticizes images of age and aging which understand age and aging as gradual lass of full humanity. For this purpose it engages Thomas Rentsch's philosophy of age and aging as a process of human self-realization. Thus it visualizes an area of tension between concepts of age and aging, which becomes a backdrop of developing a theological perception of age and aging while engaging Gerhard Sauter's reflections on this topic. Theology hence instigates a perception of aging that considers age within the framework of God's care as both a besetting and disempowered phase of life. It investigates whether and how experiences of age and aging cmmot only be perceived from its chronological end point, but rather from new life in Christ as the promised goal of human existence. Hence theology does not have any special knowledge that allows it to explain the process of aging as a whole and to make sense of it; it rather reflects about the possibility of bringing experiences of aging into a dialogue with God's history with his creatures as revealed in Christ. The essay concludes with a short prospect of this perspective on age and aging informing research possibilities in the areas of health management and pastoral care.

Enthalten in:
Evangelische Theologie; 2017/3 Zweimonatsschrift (2017)

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Serie / Reihe: Evangelische Theologie

Personen: Heuser, Stefan

Schlagwörter: Alter Theologische Ethik Altersbild Neuer Mensch