Christian Viewpoint: How do we deal with dementia and memory loss when it comes to faith and belief?
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For many of us, the very worst thing we can imagine is developing dementia and losing memory and sense of identity, writes John Dempster.
For Christians there may be additional concerns.
Will I still be ‘Christian’ if I can’t remember what I believe? Will I be forgiven if I can no longer confess my sins?
Tricia Williams investigated the faith experience of eight evangelical Christians with mild to moderate dementia for a PhD at the University of Aberdeen, and has just published her research in a book for specialists, asking What happens to faith when Christians get dementia?
It contains brave testimony from those in the front line. Faith is often alive and well.
“Even when my brain falls apart, it doesn’t matter. It’s a relationship to someone I love and who loves me."
We do hear of dark times. Someone comments of the joy which has temporarily deserted her: “Is it like the sun has gone behind the clouds?”
And someone speaks of a more permanent darkness: “The personal and tender relationship that I had with the Lord was no longer there.”
But others mention a continuing awareness of God.
“Even when my brain falls apart, it doesn’t matter. It’s a relationship to someone I love and who loves me,” says one.
In some cases, the research suggests a growth of faith in time of dementia as people learn to entrust themselves more completely to God. “I am closer to God because there’s less of me.”
But what happens when we slip beyond the reach of the researcher’s questions into the final stages of dementia?
Tricia’s work reminds us that our value as human beings isn’t tied to our ability to think and remember, but springs from the fact of God’s love for us. And God remembers us even when we can’t remember God.
Tricia’s work also reminds us of ‘body memory’ – actions like dancing, singing, taking bread and wine which recall memories stored deep in the brain, even when cognition has gone.
From this ‘deep memory’ Bible verses, lines from hymns and prayers give some sustenance in the darkness.
Those whom Tricia Williams interviewed are saints, keeping faith through a prolonged martyrdom. But there are other saints too – those who care for them while seeing a loved one in some way diminished.
Tricia’s work challenges churches to understand and support both people with dementia and their carers. In so doing we will discover, as she puts it that “this person, like me, is a Christian, loves God and is perhaps learning more about God and has more trust in God than I do”.
One of the ways God’s spirit normally connects with our spirits is through our minds.
But I wonder: as our brains fail, could it be that the light of the spirit within us glows brighter still as God’s love embraces us?
