The current issue of the Journal of Religion, Spirituality, and Aging reflects articles that offer concepts and models that impact older adults with dementia. To understand the patient’s perspective of what she or he is thinking when they have dementia reflects all the frailties of this medical condition. Seminaries and schools of counseling don’t tend to prepare students for this type of dialogue. However, people who truly get to know persons with dementia will suggest that they do understand at least some aspects of this senior’s spirituality. Some of the articles in this issue examine religiosity variables, which would include patterned religious activities and other expressions of the person’s religious identity. One article employs suffering in the context of Buddhist remediation, and another looks at the nursing home as setting for spiritual care. Many people would say that a person is a person when they have a spiritual self, not just when they are able to think cognitively. Yet, we often only know of their spiritual self through their cognitive self. In this issue, various ways of knowing the person and supporting them spiritually are offered.
