The Spiritual Crisis of the Modern World in the Light of Tradition and Prophecy Martin Lings The Eleventh Hour gives us from the outset powerful reasons for believing that we have now reached a point in time from which `the end’— whatever that may mean— is already in sight without being immediately imminent. In other words, we are now at an hour, which is neither the tenth nor the twelfth. The ‘twelfth hour’ will mark the conclusion, not of time as a whole, btit of one of the great cycles of four ages, which will be followed by another such cycle; and he argues that what Judaism, Christianity and Islam call ‘the end of the world’ can be understood in the same non-absolute way. He analyses first of all the negative aspects of the modern world, then its positive aspects, showing it to be, all things considered, far worse and yet far better than is generally supposed. The future is touched on no more than briefly, but our attention is drawn to a considerable weight of prophetic evidence that we are on the brink of a world-wide devastation. But despite these ‘days of destruction’, after which a brief positive aftermath is also predicted, and despite some of the appalling evils of the present, most reade