The relationship of human fulfillment and aging is founda tional to pastoral care with older adults and forms the core of the discussion in this volume. K. Brynolf Lyon critically prebes the claims of historic theological literature on older adulthood as well as contemporary theological and psychological inter-pretations of experience in an effort to produce a practical theological understanding of old age. This process yields. in the end, a clear and viable context for pastoral care with older adults in our time