02 - 2003

Growing older in Germany

Knowledge of life in old age

Responsibility of older people in the society

by Michael Schibilsky

Older people are often seen only as needing help and thus as a burden to the society. On the basis of biblical views of old age, M. Schibilsky points out that their experience is a treasure.

Human beings in old age have a great treasure trove in the shape of their experience, which they can call upon and put to use at any time. Achievements of intellectual and cultural value are possible to a very advanced age; and culture itself needs to be passed on from the older to the younger generation. Knowledge of life is portrayed in the Bible not only in the form of leave-taking experiences; there is also the plain duty of the younger generation to care for its elders (Ten Commandments), and also to care for widows and orphans. Even on the cross this generational duty comes up, in the form of a mutual adoption: Jesus says to Mary, "Woman, here is your son,” and to John, "Here is your mother.” There are promises and there is fulfilment (for Simeon, for example), and in the first Christian communities the elders assume a democratic leadership function as presbyters, because they no longer have their own irons in the fire.

In the biblical view, all of the life is not consumed by the concern to provide for life’s necessities. Relatives and the community itself are jointly responsible, in the biblical context, for the care of the elderly. The rich farmer is called a fool because there is more to life than the logic of gathering grain into barns, because the meaning of life is found according to other rules.

In the Protestant churches’ work with elderly persons, the concept of dignity in old age calls for exemplary helping actions in social service. In order to help, we must first learn to understand that which is strange, which we cannot understand or imagine. For young people, the body of an old person is strange at first. Secondly, we must find meaning in our helping, through reflection on God the Creator and Ground of all life. In every phase of life I must look back to discover the meaning of what I have experienced, in order to get my bearings for the future. Thirdly, to help means to encounter differences. Both the person who helps and the one dependent on the help experience that acceptance of a burden goes together with being enriched.

As long as we live, we are being educated. So time spent on education is time for living. Education cannot and should not be seen only in the narrow context of professional knowledge of how to do things. Standards for work of good quality should not simply become quantifiable series of actions. There must be a change of perspective in work with elderly persons: it calls for a more comprehensive education in order to do justice to the elderly, thus becoming the source of timely theories in the science of caring, for which they themselves are owed thanks.

The Protestant churches’ work with the elderly is care given in the form of mutual education. The place for recall of knowledge gained in the course of a lifetime, of life memories, as the space for being assured of one’s autonomy, is not an artificial space for story-telling at the margin of daily life, but belongs in the midst of the daily work of providing accompaniment and care.

This is the abridged summary of a lecture given in 2001 at a congress of the North Elbian Lutheran church on the topic of aging. Prof. Dr. M. Schibilsky is Director of the Institute for Practical Theology at the Protestant Faculty of Theology at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. The full lecture is available in German at  "Stiftung für Kirche und Diakonie - In Würde alt werden" [new window]. www.in-wuerde-alt-werden.de/alter3.asp