Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell

Catholic University of America Press is proud to present the second volume in its new Sayings of the Fathers of the Church Series. Featuring a wide range of scholars compiling material from our acclaimed Fathers of the Church volumes, each title will be devoted to a few specific areas of theology. The inaugural volume covered The Seven Deadly Sins, and future volumes are planned to focus on Angels and Demons, the Mass, and Mary.

Nothing has the power to inspire, or terrify us like the unknown. Life after death is the perhaps the greatest unknown that confronts mankind. But the wisdom of the Church, especially in the teachings of the Church Fathers, reminds us that we know a great deal about what awaits us at the end of life.

What the Church knows about the four last things—death judgment, heaven, and hell—is essential for helping on the way of the pilgrimage of life. The teachings of the Fathers, far from sating our curiosity, serve to increase the power of heaven to inspire us, and of hell to terrify.

In this volume, canon lawyer and writer Edward Condon compiles a book full of wisdom and compelling insights. More than anything, the Fathers warn us that our life is short, and the reckoning for how we have lived it eternal. The urgency of the Church's message, brought to life in the sayings of the Fathers, comes to remind us of our true calling and inheritance in baptism, and of the richness of the heavenly reward, which is not so much the fruit of our efforts on Earth but the fulfillment of God's promise of love to us. The terror of hell is not the threat of the dictator, but a dire warning of the true scope of our freedom as children of God.

This book, rich with the traditional teachings of the church, will guide and inspire readers as they continue their life journeys, which have a beginning but no end.