| Today's society has resulted in alot of problems of the aged with loss of authority and role, alienation, loneliness, poverty, & sickness--all the result of rapid urbanization and collapse of the family system, especially focused on the aged who had been the social leaders. Therefore, it goes without saying that the problems of the aged must be considered a serious social problem. Furthermore, improvement of living standard and development of life science has extended the average life span, which has resulted in a rapid increase of the aged population. It is also true that the social security system for a aged has been developed in Western society for a century, while Koreans have not been much concerned with problems of the aged.;The main concern of this dissertation is focused on the following: First, we attempt to deal with the elderly's problems by observing the social, national, and world levels and analyzing the aged's problems to solve them in the context of the mission of the church. Second, as a resolution of the aged's problems, we suggest several ways: to understand the aged's problems to attempt to solve them in terms of multidimensional strategies such as spiritual, physical and economic factors based upon the special consideration of mission. Third, we suggest the analysis of the detailed problems associated with the elderly's school. In particular, we suggest the necessity of a life long education as an educational program. Finally, to attain the goal of the mission and the aged's pastoring, it is important that cooperative work between the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and local churches be encouraged in order to attain the ultimate goal (i.e., Mission and Salvation) based upon development of welfare programs and educational programs.;Since it has not fully discussed the problems of the aged on the pastoral or theological level, we attempt to analyze them through document research associated with the existing data provided by educators, religion scholars, and social scientists. Furthermore, we focused on the analysis of the empirical data based upon our own experience resulting from management of the school for the aged of our church (i.e., Gwacheon Presbyterian Church). |
