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Closer to the World beyond? Spirituality and Transcendence in Old Age

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Book cover Aging and Human Nature

Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Aging ((Int. Perspect. Aging,volume 25))

Abstract

This chapter sets out to explore how spirituality and transcendence in old age can be understood. It follows the clues of ancient wisdom in order to show the modern significance of its concepts for spirituality of old age in a comparison with Lars Tornstam’s theory of gerotranscendence. The worldview of gerotranscendence articulates a countercultural blueprint for a way of life that can be linked to the monastic ideal in the tradition of Christian piety.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All quotes in the following passage refer to Plato (1968), 328f.

  2. 2.

    “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato” (Whitehead 1979, 39).

  3. 3.

    See Kruse, Chap. 3 in this volume.

  4. 4.

    See Rüegger, Chap. 4 in this volume.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Ralph Kunz

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  1. Ralph Kunz
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Correspondence to Ralph Kunz .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Services Research, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, Germany

    Mark Schweda

  2. Institute of Social Ethics, Faculty of Theology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Michael Coors

  3. Department of Medical Ethics & History of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Claudia Bozzaro

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Kunz, R. (2020). Closer to the World beyond? Spirituality and Transcendence in Old Age. In: Schweda, M., Coors, M., Bozzaro, C. (eds) Aging and Human Nature. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25097-3_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25097-3_19

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