Religious Deidentification and Religiosity as a Source of Meaning in Life: A Mixed-Methods Study of Finnish Older Adults

In the increasingly heterogeneous existential landscape of Nordic societies, older adults are often represented as religious and their religiosity as uniform and traditional. Not much is known about the nuances and possible tension in their relationship to religiosity. This qualitatively oriented mixed-methods study among Finnish older adults explores their relationship to religiosity, approached as beliefs, practices, symbols and organizations of religious traditions. The findings are interpreted in light of religious deidentification and religiosity as a source of meaning in life. The quantitative data consists of 313 older adults’ responses in the Finnish translation of the Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life questionnaire (SoMe, Finnish MerTa). The qualitative data includes 23 thematic interviews. Findings indicate that older adults’ relationships to religiosity may be more heterogeneous and ambivalent than previously thought. Many participants deidentified with religious authorities, especially represented by religious organizations. Still, other religious aspects were often sources of meaning in life. This ambivalence was also connected to spirituality. The cultural revolution of religion in the 1960s–1970s might play a role in these older adults’ relationship to religiosity as well as the historical association between the political left and atheism.