Lord of the World

The 1907 novel Lord of the World was reissued by an American Catholic press in 2016 in response to a repeated approbation of the book by Pope Francis, who claimed that it illustrated what he called the threat of "ideological colonization" (ix-x). It has also been held up as a seminal example of dystopian science fiction, and was certainly in part written as a rejoinder to the political imaginings of H.G. Wells.

As "science" fiction, this book does not impress. Propeller-driven aircraft ("volors") allow for travel from London to Rome in twelve hours' time and for aerial bombardment. The story anticipates for the early 21st century the "perfection" of telegraphy (252)--but the existence of neither radio nor telephony, let alone show more television. A cutting-edge means of mass communication is the widespread posting of placards in urban nodes for mass transit. A simple respiratory device for euthanasia has been developed and legitimized for both eugenics and suicide. Along with a peculiar emphasis on rubber carpets, those pretty much exhaust the technological innovation forecast in this book.

Author Robert Hugh Benson's speculative political history of the 20th century is mostly set forth in a prologue which he himself calls "tiresome" and advises the reader to skip if one is more interested in narrative than exposition. It charts the appearance of Communist governments by democratic means throughout the industrialized Western countries. Nation-states have become consolidated into three great alliances (America, Europe, and the Eastern Empire), which in the course of the novel become departments of the one-world government under the charismatic diplomat-cum-global-sovereign Julian Felsenburgh. The dispossessed royalty of Europe have rallied around Catholic Rome, both ideologically and physically.

Casting the remarks by Pope Francis in a somewhat ironic light, the actual economic and military colonization wrought by 19th-century imperialism goes absolutely unquestioned by Benson; Africa has been subject to a "peaceful partition" (131) among its dominators, and every individual character that appears in the book is white as can be. Even the theoretically significant Eastern powers are abstracted and offstage.

The secular religion promoted by Felsenburgh is called "Humanitarianism," and it predictably becomes an oppressive and persecuting force. "It is Pantheism; it is developing a ritual under Freemasonry; it has a creed, 'God is Man,' and the rest" (10). Judaism has evidently vanished without a trace, and Islam has been prepared for its assimilation to the global cult by becoming "esoteric" (272) through the leaven of Sufism. Protestantism has ultimately dissolved as "nothing more than a little sentiment" (5). Everyone knows that Christianity is stupid.

Although Benson imagined that Catholic organization and administration would be centralized and simplified during a secularizing 20th century, he did not foresee major liturgical reforms, such as those undertaken by the Second Vatican Council. In a telling inversion of the actual turn of Catholicism to a diversity of popular languages, he has even the Catholic laity take up the use of Latin in ordinary speech. This they do in resistance to the invidious Esperanto fostered by international Communism, which has become an official language even in the English government.

Benson was the son of an Archbishop of Canterbury, who ordained him to the Anglican priesthood. He converted to Catholicism a few years after his father's death, and became a Catholic priest in 1904. He plays with a quasi-autobiographical trope of celebrity conversion in the first section of the novel, where the mother of a prominent English Communist politician converts to Catholicism.

It is easy to conjecture that Benson's novel might have influenced Charles Williams' All Hallow's Eve, which I read last month. But where Williams' aspiring antichrist never quite attains to the office of "Lord of the World," Felsenburgh sees his career through to a final battle at Armageddon. This finale--much like the one in Williams' War in Heaven--leverages a liturgical rhapsody to adumbrate a spiritual victory. The amillenial outcome is a refreshing counterpoint to the premillennialist Left Behind Apocalypse fantasies that littered bookshelves in the actual year 2007!

I am puzzled by the insistence of 21st-century Catholics that Benson's "prophetic" novel is obviously relevant to our current world situation, which is characterized by nationalist fragmentation and rightward political drift far more than the democracy and liberal humanitarianism that Benson found so frightful. And of course he completely misses anything like the surveillance capitalism and ecocide that are the real engines of our existing dystopia. Nevertheless, the novel is interesting as a peculiar development of the species of fin de siècle Catholic paranoia cultivated and exploited by Gabriel Jogand-Pagès (the notorious "Leo Taxil"), and the fact that it still has the attention of readers after the date to which it assigned the eschaton testifies in its favor. The individual characterizations are effective; Felsenburgh is not a viewpoint character, and the interior treatment of both Christians and Communists is managed with a fair amount of sympathy. I found it a surprisingly fast read. show less

Lord of the World is an early example of dystopian fiction, set in a world in which materialism and individualism have triumphed over religion in the West. The few remaining Catholics are condescendingly tolerated even as they are openly ridiculed by those who know better. Then, just when it seems like there will be war between Europe and "the East", an unknown American takes the world by storm. All of a sudden, the West discovers faith again—faith in humanity expressed as faith in Felsenburgh. Catholic priest Father Percy Franklin despairs of what is coming, even as he tries to help his flock withstand the coming persecution. From mob violence to official persecution, there is no relief in sight for those who differ with the official show more line. In return Felsenburgh has promised a new age, but as one of the main characters finds out, this new age looks a lot like the old one.

A very interesting take on the End of the World. Highly recommended for fans of classic dystopian fiction, fiction of the apocalypse, or interesting Catholic fiction. show less

Lord of the World. Robert Hugh Benson. 1907. This is one of the first books I downloaded when I got my first Kindle, but I didn’t get around to reading it until my book decided to read it. It needs to be read along with Brave New World. and 1984. It is just as sobering and frightening. The world has been divided into regions and a charismatic leader arises who will get all the regions to agree to quit fighting. The Catholic Church is the only thing standing in the way of eternal world peace where man is god. So it must be destroyed. This is not a great novel but it is a novel view of the future that contains enough truth to be scary.

Thought provoking, but not the sensation some made it out to be.

I found it a bit tough to get through. I found him spending too much time on the descriptions of a persons interior movement and redescribing it over and over. I was impatient with them and skimmed a bunch getting to the action. It could have been cut down to a more bone and quicker story in some ways.

Lord of the World
Robert Hugh Benson
1907

Holy Thursday always reminds me of Lord of the World by Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson. This book was written by a Catholic priest in 1906, and describes the appearance of the Antichrist at the end of the world. While the Antichrist has a prominent role in the book, the actions of the other main characters, in this case, the Pope and his Cardinals, priests, etc. are far more interesting. The world has become extremely hostile to the Church, and there are many who have fallen away from the Faith. Even some of the priests have joined the Antichrist's movement.

Did I mention that this book, written in 1906, takes place around the year 2000?

Bear with me, and hold that thought, as this Ritalin-deprived brain show more leaps to yet another book which I recently showed to our Pastor. This book, which will remain nameless, was written to commemorate the 150th year of the parish that I belonged to when I was growing up. I was showing it so that Fr. X could see what the church looked like before it was 'wreckovated.' As I thumbed through the book, I came across the picture of the pastor who had been there during the 60's and 70's. He, like Robert Hugh Benson, had the title Monsignor. Unfortunately, he, along with every other priest in the city, had published a letter in 1968 to the effect that they disagreed with the Pope's teaching on Humane Vitae. That is all I could think of after seeing the Monsignor's portrait. May God have mercy on his soul, and on all the others who signed that letter. I thought of how this priest had not stood with the Pope, just as some of the priests in Lord of the World also left the side of the Pope.

No one in Lord of the World fares well in the temporal realm. How they do in the spiritual realm is far more important, and is what makes me think of this book every Holy Thursday. At the end of Holy Thursday Mass, the Precious Body is moved to the Altar of Repose, a side altar, while the main altar is stripped. As Our Lord is brought to the Altar of Repose, with incense and candles and an escort befitting The King, we would sing Pange Lingua. The first four verses would be sung until the Precious Body was placed on the Altar, at which time the final two verses would be sung.

These final verses play a significant role in the end of Lord of the World:

Genitori, Genitoque
laus et jubilatio,
salus, honor, virtus quoque
sit et benedictio:
procedenti ab utroque
compar sit laudatio. Amen

I strongly recommend this book. It was written more than 100 years ago, but still is fresh and relevant. The events in the book and the way in which our current president was elected are strikingly similar. show less

3923. Lord of the World, by Robert Hugh Benson (read 19 Aug 2004) This is an amazing book, depicting a world years after 1907. The future the author envisions is far less futuristic than the present--air travel is at only 150 mph! There is not TV nor e-mail, nor, apparently, microphones. Father Percy Franklin is an English priest in a world being lost to the Faith. The ending is stunning and heartening. There is some power in this book, albeit the future seems very dimly perceived so far as sci fi fans would see the book.