Visionary accounts of the afterlife are attested from ancient times, and loomed large in the imaginative universe of early Christianity. The Medieval Irish inherited and transformed this tradition, producing vivid narratives of the afterlife and the end of the world. These narratives had a profound impact throughout Europe as well as being texts of remarkable literary and intellectual merit in their own right. The De Finibus team, funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS), is examining this rich material in order to elucidate it for the scholarly community and for the wider public. (http://definibus.ucc.ie/)

Bernard McGinn, the Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology and of the History of Christianity (Divinity School, University of Chicago), works on the history of Christianity and Christian thought, primarily in the medieval period. He has written extensively in the areas of the history of apocalyptic thought and, most recently, in the areas of spirituality and mysticism. His current long-range project is a five-volume history of Christian mysticism in the West under the general title The Presence of God, four volumes of which have appeared: The Origins of Mysticism; The Growth of Mysticism; The Flowering of Mysticism; and The Harvest of Mysticism in Medieval Germany .

Image:  Honan Chapel Window, Judas

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