Lecture to Address Effects of Religion on Health in Last Year of Life

WORCESTER, Mass. – Ellen L. Idler, professor in the Department of Sociology and the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research at Rutgers University, will give a lecture titled “Religion and Aging in Communities of Memory” on Monday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The lecture is part of the Aging, Ethics and Spirituality Lecture Series, sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture and the Gerontology Studies Program. It is free and open to the public.

Idler studies the influence of attitudes, beliefs and social connections on health. In her talk, Idler will share her recent research on the consequences of religious participation and belief in the last year of life.

“Although we think of aging as both an objective process and subjective experience of individuals, it is also a process and experience that occurs in social institutions. Religious congregations are no exception,” she explains. “And just as individuals remember their pasts and look forward to their futures, congregations carry history forward, providing continuity and intergenerational contact for elderly members.”

Idler’s current projects include a study of religion’s impact on quality of life in the last year of life, the development of scales for measuring the multidimensional aspects of religion for health studies, a study of the impact of religion and spirituality on recovery from coronary artery bypass surgery, and a set of projects on end-of-life decision-making, self-rated health, and chronic illness management with a team at the Rutgers Center for Health Beliefs and Behavior.

Idler, who holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, is the author of Cohesiveness and Coherence: Religion and the Health of the Elderly (1994), and her articles have appeared in American Journal of Sociology, American Journal of Epidemiology, American Journal of Public Health, Social Forces, the Journals of Gerontology, and Research on Aging. She is a fellow and former chair of the Behavioral and Social Sciences section of the Gerontological Society of America. She has served on the editorial boards of several journals on sociology and aging.

To learn more about this program and other Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture events, visit www.holycross.edu/crec.

About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College's commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.