Learn How the Later Years are Part of the Living Water that God Has Given to Us, and Come to a Deep Understanding that "As We Mature Our Spiritual Pace Quickens."
The Essentials of Spiritual Gerontology provides direct training in understanding the emerging sub-specialty of spirituality in the maturing years, as well as a treasury of wisdom from Dr. Johnson himself. His teaching, stories, and insights reveal the fruits of the first steps toward fuller engagement with God as we mature. This course sets the stage for all future JOHNSON Institute courses by offering the grounding principles, content, and competencies of spiritual gerontology.
Spiritual Gerontology is the "new expanded vision" of gerontology (the study of adult development and aging) that allows us to see aging as an extension of God’s hand in our maturing lives. Spiritual gerontology involves the interplay between the transcendent or faith aspects of living with all other arenas of life structure: work, family, relationships, self-esteem, body image, and leisure. All of human growth and development is under-girded by spiritual development; this spiritual or transcendent work only intensifies as we mature.
Spiritual gerontology sees faith life as the singular and unique thread that runs through the entire lifespan, a thread that becomes stronger and more prominent in healthy adults especially as they move into and through their later years. Psychology touches on parts of spiritual gerontology in its concept of gerotranscendence, the identified tendency of maturing adults to successively diminish external engagement in life and gradually grow into a more internal capacity for experiencing life. However gerotranscendence is only a sub-screen of a much bigger picture of ongoing spiritual development that becomes the central stream of growth for the maturing individual.
Course 100 is one of 12 courses that make-up the JOHNSON Institute curriculum in Spiritual Gerontology and Maturing Adult Faith Formation, culminating in student's earning their Professional Certificate in Spiritual Gerontology (PCSG).
This course may be taken anytime in a self-study format.