Journeys of Life

Engaging the Work of Thomas R. Cole

Nathan Carlin, Kate de Medeiros, Nathan Carlin, Kate de Medeiros

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9798385203628
  9798385203635
• eBook ISBN:
  9798385203642
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies

Trained as a cultural historian, Thomas R. Cole is one of the most influential scholars of his generation, with his work moving beyond and impacting many other fields and disciplines. His work includes The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Cole also published No Color Is My Kind: The Life of Eldrewey Stearns and the Integration of Houston, creating along with the book an accompanying film, The Strange Demise of Jim Crow, which was nominated for a regional Emmy and a National Humanities Medal. Cole created a number of other films as well. In all of his work, there is an emphasis on religion, spirituality, and moral meaning. Cole is also a Jewish spiritual director, and this work has become a major focus for him in retirement. This edited volume engages or responds to Cole's work, which spans cultural history, oral history, aging studies, film, medical humanities, religious studies, and more. As such, this book is not about Cole per se, but the impact of his ideas and subsequent inspirations.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: On Being Undisciplined and Subversive
• Chapter 2: Re-Interpreting the Journey of Life
• Chapter 3: Narrating Stories from the Perspective of Dementia
• Chapter 4: A Mutual Opportunity of Listening and Telling
• Chapter 5: Worthy to be Recorded
• Chapter 6: Carrying the Fire
• Chapter 7: Older Women’s Sexuality—in Life and in Film
• Chapter 8: The Fourth Age as a “Feared” Old Age
• Chapter 9: Aging in the Anthropocene
• Epilogue
• Appendix Essay: A Qualitative Evidence Synthesis of Medical Humanities
• Bibliography