This is a work of rare prophetic brilliance by Josef Pieper, one of this century's most profound and lucid expositors of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. This book was written to throw light on an ancient question that has vexed and tormented many. What is the nature of ""The End"" toward which, even now, the world and men are moving? No writer of our time is better equipped to answer that question than Pieper. He provides the most rigorous and sustained philosophical analysis, anchored to ""the primeval rock of theological pronouncement"", in order precisely to understand the finalities of time and history.