Last Days

About the Book

The Last Days: The Messiah, The Apocalypse, The Rapture, The Last Judgment This concise but large book (over 500 pages) on a large topic starts with the Judeo-Christian tradition with chapters on the Jewish religion and prophecy and Christian eschatology, then broadens out to detail the Last Days beliefs of other religions worldwide. Then come fact-filled chapters on End Times in art and science and literature and the media. The final chapter offers comment on hundreds of apocalyptic and disaster films, revealing the modern mindset. Belief in The End, from early prophets to current believers in the Rapture, has always dominated theology, philosophy and daily life. Here is here reference to hundreds of sources plus penetrating and personal opinion, the wisdom and speculation from the world’s cultures through the ages on where humanity comes from and what its final fate may be. The subject is complex but the book’s style is not dryly professorial but clever, concrete and accessible to any reader, and the cast of characters in this long drama runs from saints and sinners to kooks and catastrophists. On a subject so popular now, information needs to be handled with precision but made readable for all, whatever their views on contentious creeds and people’s faiths or imaginations. The study is respectful of all beliefs but ventures to make decisions. And to call on the reader to make decisions also.

About the Author

LEONARD R. N. ASHLEY, PhD (Princeton), LHD (Columbia Theological, honoris causa) is professor emeritus of Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. He is the editor of many textbooks and literary classics and is the author of several dozen published books on topics ranging from linguistics (onomastics, geolinguistics) and literature (literary biographies, literary history, literary criticism) to folklore, popular culture, and military history