Embracing age: How Catholic nuns became models of aging well. By Anna I.Corwin. 2021. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 2021. pp. 202. $32.95 (paperback). ISBN: 9781978822276
Year: 2025
Type: book-review
Abstract: Embracing Age: How Catholic Nuns Became Models of Aging Well by Anna Corwin examines how a convent of American Catholic nuns experience exceptionally positive health outcomes and overall well-being in later life.Rather than adhering to a "successful aging" approach, which prioritizes independence and productivity, the book challenges the American notion of aging as a problem to be solved.Instead, Corwin provides glimpses into a community of sisters who embrace aging through interdependence, shared faith, and the acceptance of decline as an inevitable part of life.Although Corwin's background is rooted in linguistic anthropology, the major themes of acceptance, embracing aging, interdependence, community, and communication provide valuable insights for family scholars.As the United States faces an aging population (Ortman et al., 2014), a caregiving crisis (Kent et al., 2020), and a decreasing birth rate (Hamilton et al., 2024), family scientists are in a unique position to advance research, inform policy, and develop interventions to support older adults and their loved ones.This review provides an overview of the book and explicit connections to family theory.We then provide applications for research, teaching, and practice within family science.By emphasizing the Franciscan Sisters' alternative framework to aging, we hope to shed light on this unique perspective on life for family scholars and practitioners.
DOI: 10.1111/jftr.12625
Authors: Jaclyn Elisa Keenoy, Fatima Hernandez Torrez, Natalia Taylor
Language: English
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4410122356