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Abstract

In the year 2000, there were approximately 35 million people age 65 and older in the United States. This figure is expected to double by the year 2030 (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review, 2003). The same trend is predicted worldwide (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review, 2003). Given the phenomenon of global aging, it is not surprising to find that sociologists are becoming increasingly interested in studying older people. Recently, a good deal of this interest has focused on religion and aging. Over the past several years, a number of volumes have been devoted to this topic (e.g., Kimble & McFadden, 2003; Koenig, 1994), and articles on religion and aging now routinely appear in gerontology journals (e.g., the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences), as well as mainstream journals in religion (e.g., the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion).

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Krause, N. (2006). Aging. In: Ebaugh, H.R. (eds) Handbook of Religion and Social Institutions. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23789-5_7

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