The stories of thirty women, ages 60 to 80, members of an interfaith group of women, were gathered to explore their perceptions of spirituality. Although a continuity of meaning and purpose existed over each one's lifetime, these women defines 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. Controlling for living arrangements, gender, social class and health in probit regression analyses, race was not a significant predictor of subjective religiosity, frequency of prayer, or level of church help received. Subjective religiosity was positively associated with health for whites but no relationship was found between religiosity and health for African-Americans.
Further research is called for that replicated study findings on other elders with chronic illness.
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