InChristian eschatology, theFour Last Things (Latin:quattuor novissima)[1] areDeath,Judgment,Heaven, andHell, the four last stages of thesoul in life and theafterlife.[2][3] They are often commended as a topic forpious meditation; SaintPhilip Neri wrote, "Beginners in religion ought to exercise themselves principally in meditation on the Four Last Things".[4] Traditionally, thesermons preached on the four Sundays ofAdvent were on the Four Last Things.[5]
The 1909Catholic Encyclopedia states "The eschatological summary which speaks of the 'four last things' (death, judgment, heaven, and hell) is popular rather than scientific. For systematic treatment it is best to distinguish between (A) individual and (B) universal and cosmic eschatology, including under (A): (1) death; (2) the particular judgment; (3) heaven, or eternal happiness; (4) purgatory, or the intermediate state; (5) hell, or eternal punishment; and under (B): (6) the approach of the end of the world; (7) the resurrection of the body; (8) the general judgment; and (9) the final consummation of all things."[6]Pope John Paul II wrote in 1984 that the "judgment" component encompasses bothparticular judgment andgeneral judgment.[7]
Numerous theologians andChristian apologists have written on the Four Last Things; published accounts include:
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A Catholic sermon on the Four Last Things features inJames Joyce's novelA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916); a "hellfire" sermon in the Protestant revivalist tradition appears inStella Gibbons'sCold Comfort Farm (1932).
Martin of Cochem explains that "there are three principal reasons why all sensible people feardeath so much: First, because the love of life, the dread of death is inherent in human nature. Secondly, because every rational being is well aware that death is bitter, and the separation ofsoul and body cannot take place without inexpressible suffering. Thirdly, because no one knows whither he will go after death, or how he will stand in theDay of Judgment."[18]
Or asAlphonsus Liguori wrote in his meditations: "We must die: how awful is the decree! We must die. The sentence is passed:It is appointed for all men once to die.Heb. 9:27"[19]
Of thefinal judgment,Alphonsus Liguori writes that, "the last day is called in Scripture a day of wrath and misery; and such it will be for all those unhappy beings who shall have died inmortal sin; for on that day their most secret crimes will be made manifest to the whole world, and themselves separated from the company of thesaints, and condemned to the eternal prison of hell, where they will suffer all the agonies of ever dying yet always remaining alive."[19]
Ofheaven,Richard Challoner in his famous workThink Well On't writes, " Consider, that if God's justice is so terrible in regard to his enemies, how much more will his mercy, his goodness, his bounty declare itself in favour of his friends! Mercy and goodness are his favourite attributes, in which he most delights:his tender mercies says the royal prophet, Ps. 144.are over all his works.[20]
Luis de la Puente writes concerningThe nature ofhell: "Hell is a perpetual prison, full of fire and of innumerable and very terrible torments, to chastise perpetually such as die inmortal sin. Or, again, hell is an eternal state, wherein sinners, for the punishment of their sins, want all that good which they may desire for their content, and endure all kinds of evils which they may fear for their torment. So that in hell is joined together the privation of all that good which men enjoy in this life and angels in the other, and the presence of all those evils which afflict men in this life and the devils in the other."[21]
The Four Last Things are a common theme of artistic and literary works as well as theological works.
| Work | Type | Creator | Year | Notes | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things | Painting | Hieronymus Bosch | c.1500 | ||
| Christ painting the Four Last Things in the Christian Heart | Engraving | Anton Wierix | 1585 | One of 18 copperplate engravings published asCor Iesu amanti sacrum | [22][23] |
| "One Thing is Needful, or Serious Meditations upon the Four Last Things" | Poem | John Bunyan | 1683 | [24] | |
| The Four Last Things (German:Die vier letzten Dinge) | Sculpture | Anton Neu, based on ideas from theAsam brothers | 1751 | Stucco cartouches in the vestibule ofWeltenburg Abbey chapel | [25] |
| The Four Last Things | Sculpture | Josef Stammel | c.1760 | InAdmont Abbey | [26] |
| Novissima (Portuguese:Novíssimos) | Paintings | José Gervásio de Sousa Lobo | 1792–3 | Originally made for the sacristy of theChurch of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black Men [pt] inOuro Preto; currently in theMinor Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar [pt] in the same city. | [27] |
| Die vier letzten Dinge | Oratorio | Joseph Leopold Eybler | 1810 | [28] | |
| Die letzten Dinge | Oratorio | Louis Spohr | 1826 | ||
| Cantata of the Last Things of Man | Cantata | Ladislav Vycpálek | 1920–22 | Czech titleKantáta o posledních věcech člověka | [29] |
| The Four Last Things | Poetry collection | Madeleva Wolff | 1959 | Poems with theological themes | |
| No. 18 (unfinished) | Film | Harry Everett Smith | 1990s | Intended as his masterwork | |
| "Die vier letzten Dinge (Quasi una Sinfonia da Requiem)" | Symphony | Horst Lohse [de] | 1996–97 | For organ and orchestra | [30] |
Media related toThe Four Last Things at Wikimedia Commons| Four cardinal virtues |
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| Three theological virtues |
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| Seven lively virtues versus Seven deadly sins | ||
| Related concepts | ||
