In my youth, I never used the word “spirituality.” It would have seemed a poor substitute for “religion,” the familiar word that gave meaning to my life.

I probably would not have understood anyone saying “I’m not religious, I’m spiritual.” But nowadays more and more people have become fond of speaking this way. The expression has become something of a mantra.

Eventually, I did learn to speak of “the spiritual life” but it was always connected with my religious practice. Thinking of it as detached from religion would not occur to me until much later still. For me, the spiritual life came from the church and that linkage seemed to me normal.

In his new book, “Spirituality and Aging” (Johns Hopkins University Press), a friend and colleague Robert Atchley, reverses the approach long familiar to me. Instead of focusing on religion and giving only a nod to spirituality, he chooses to concentrate on spirituality in and for itself. And, as the title indicates, he emphasizes its role in the lives of those who have entered into later life.

In a conversation with me about his book, my friend estimates that 30 percent of Americans do not look to religion as the source of their spiritual practice. This finding moves him to avoid religious language when discussing  spiritual experience.

For him, the main concern of spirituality is a focus on “being” as distinguished from “doing.” He sees the spiritual journey as “a quest for balance between being and doing.” It is also a search for transcendence, for ultimate meaning.

Spirituality, in Atchley’s eyes, serves as a basic element in people’s aging. “There is considerable evidence,” he writes, “that spiritual concerns, experiences, and development become increasingly important for many people in middle and later life.”

In fact, he likes to think of later life as a time when people can become “sages” and “spiritual elders.” If these terms strike you as rather pretentious (as they do me) that’s regrettable, because the author is getting at ideals that are  important for older people.

Becoming a sage means committing yourself to what Atchley calls “inner work.” This is what it takes to go beyond oneself and connect with the sacred. It also becomes a path toward wisdom.

Spiritual elders are those who serve as mentors to others who wish to enter the same path. Atchley explains that this path involves “focus on the inner life, service to others, and deepening connections with the sacred.”

He describes a ceremony in which he joins age peers in blessing people who want to be affirmed by their elders, or to engage upon the path of wisdom. To his surprise he finds himself deeply moved as he enters into this simple rite of passage

In discussing spirituality among people in the second half of life, Atchley, a veteran researcher, knows what he is talking about. For 20 years, he studied 1300 people over the age of 50 to survey their spiritual development. That study convinced him that people as they age acquire a sense of direction and valuable mechanisms for coping with problems.

His research also points toward the connection between spirituality and time. This link holds special interest for me as life’s changes of pace continue to fascinate me.

Atchley sees time as passing more quickly in late life and he gives four reasons why that may be so: 1) Nothing new seems to be happening; 2) People may have escaped from “the tyranny of the clock;” 3) Activities seem to flow, causing one to lose a sense of time passing; 4) Routine tasks take longer, thus making time seem more pressured.

And yet, Atchley finds, “aging makes possible a greater capacity to be in the present.” For him, elders have much more facility in bringing to the present time a sense of “present-moment awareness,” than do younger people.

On this subject, he quotes approvingly an 80-year-old man: “You become free of time when you realize that time is in you, not you in time.”

On the subject of dying. Atchley’s research has led him to this observation: “For most older people aging is accompanied by reduced fear of death.”

They tend to feel more concern about the circumstances of their dying rather than death itself. Perhaps this flows from spiritual experiences that can lead to a higher vantage point from which to consider death and dying.

In summarizing his findings, the author concludes that “millions of aging people in America, perhaps a billion or more throughout the world, are aiming to live a more integrated spiritual life, one in which spirituality . . . can flourish as a centerpiece of values and behavior.”

For those who serve older people, Atchley concludes, recognizing the inner journey on which so many of them are engaged can make a big difference. Among other benefits, this recognition of their spirituality can lead to treating elders with dignity, understanding, and compassion.