Embracing Age

How Catholic Nuns Became Models of Aging Well (Global Perspectives on Aging)

By: Anna I. Corwin

Narrated by: Carole Graham Lehan

Embracing Age: How Catholic Nuns Became Models of Aging Well examines a community of individuals whose aging trajectories contrast mainstream American experiences. In mainstream American society, aging is presented as a “problem”, a state to be avoided as long as possible, a state that threatens one’s ability to maintain independence, autonomy, control over one’s surroundings. Aging “well” (or avoiding aging) has become a 21st-century American preoccupation.

Embracing Age provides a window into the everyday lives of American Catholic nuns who experience longevity and remarkable health and well-being at the end of life. Catholic nuns aren’t only healthier in older age; they are healthier because they practice a culture of acceptance and grace around aging. Embracing Age demonstrates how aging in the convent becomes understood by the nuns to be a natural part of the life course, not one to be feared or avoided.

Anna I. Corwin shows listeners how Catholic nuns create a cultural community that provides a model for how to grow old, decline, and die that is both embedded in American culture and quite distinct from other American models.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Anna I. Corwin (P)2022 Anna I. Corwin

A New Perspective on Aging!

My favorite books are the ones that make me think deeply or see a subject with a fresh set of eyes. I picked up Embracing Aging because it’s a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about. What I got was more than I bargained for in a good way. With substantial research studies to back up her ideas, Corwin explores cultural practices within the nunnery under a microscope, highlighting what the rest of us stand to learn through such a lens. Utterly relevant and meticulously crafted, Corwin depicts a tightly woven microcosm whose practices could spill over from the pages and be utilized by the reader upon completion. I can easily see this text being applicable to the everyday reader interested in the topic of aging well or dissected/analyzed in a university setting. Either way, it won’t fail to make you question our cultural norms and consider whether a better way to age exists, waiting to be emulated.