Can “all things be new”? Ageing and creativity

Rev’d Dr Jane FoulcherCentre for Ageing & Pastoral Studies

Charles Sturt University

Ageing as forward movement

Personal setbacks• Loss of personal dignity• Loss of work• Loss of independence• Loss of time• Loss of object relations

Potential Gains• Discovery of some positive

adult dependencies• Redefining one’s own status• Discovering one’s own inner

world• Relaxing of defences• Living in the present• (Re-)identification with

youthful idealism• New freedom & openness

Pruyser (1975)

Creativity in ageing

• Changing aspirations• Waning of rivalry• Discerning survivors• Greater interiority• Accumulation of experiences, recognition of

ambiguities

Pruyser (1987)

Orthodox icons

Icons are in colours what the Scriptures are in words: witnesses to the Incarnation, the fact that God has come among us as a person whom we can see, touch and hear, to offer us new life and begin the new creation

(Council of Nicea, 787)