Four Last Things, The

How will we face the end? On whom does our hope finally depend? What are the last things ever to be remembered? These are the questions examined in this course, whose lectures abound with insight and imagery drawn from the rich patrimony of the Church's wisdom and experience. In this course, Dr. Regis Martin presents a comprehensive overview of the finalities that frame our human story and how our action (or inaction) when faced with the end will determine where we spend eternity. It is essential to the Christian vocation that we always be mindful of our end. Whereas the world persists in the denial of death, in flight from God and the judgment that follows, the Christian looks forward to both his death and the resurrection of all the dead. A lively interest in death and the life to come is necessary to the maintenance of our identity as Christians. "Nothing is more certain than death," declares St. Anselm, "nothing more uncertain than its hour." Faced with the inevitability of death, we all share that deep and persisting need to know what comes after. While others recoil from the prospect of death, preferring the false comforts of denial and flight, we who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ remain serene in the knowledge and practice of hope, which alone enables us to face the end with joy and gratitude. Professor Martin identifies the Last Things each of us is destined to face - namely, Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell - reviewing them in the context of Christian hope, which is the virtue most necessary to the happy outcome of our journey home to God.