The editors assemble evidence to illustrate both the positive and the negative aspects of the eschatological element in mediaeval thought. An interdisciplinary approach, wit hits comparative study of sources, helps to highlight the intellectual preoccupations of many religious thinkers who grappled with the overwhelming prospect of Universal destruction, questioned the role of the individual in the economy of salvation, and attempted to see the relevance of everyday social and political events to a vision of history in which the end is nearer than the beginning.