Lord of the World (A Prophetic Novel)

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Lord of the World is a 1907 dystopian science fiction novel by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson that centers upon the reign of the Antichrist and the end of the world. It has been called prophetic by Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. 

Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, a former High Church Anglican Vicar, began writing Lord of the World two years after his conversion to Roman Catholicism rocked the Church of England in 1903.  

The youngest son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Edward White Benson, and the society hostess Mary Sidgwick Benson, Robert was descended from a very long line of Anglican clergymen. He had also read the litany at his father's 1896 funeral at Canterbury Cathedral and was widely expected to one day take his father's place as the most senior clergyman in the Anglican Communion. After a crisis of faith described in his 1913 memoir Confessions of a Convert, however, Benson was received into the Roman Catholic Church on September 11, 1903. 

According to Joseph Pearce, "The press made much of the story that the son of the former Archbishop of Canterbury had become a Catholic, and the revelation rocked the Anglican establishment in a way reminiscent of the days of the Oxford Movement and the conversion of Newman." 

The former Vicar found himself inundated with hate mail from Anglican clergy, men, women, and even children. Benson found himself accused of being "a deliberate traitor", "an infatuated fool", and of bringing dishonor upon his father's name and memory. Although he replied scrupulously to every letter, Benson was deeply hurt. He later wrote that he received considerable solace in the words that an Anglican Bishop had spoken to his mother, "Remember that he has followed his conscience after all, and what else could his father wish for him than that?" 

After his ordination as a Catholic priest at Rome in 1904, Fr. Benson had been assigned as a Catholic Chaplain at Cambridge University. It was during his stay at Cambridge Rectory that Lord of the World was conceived and written. 

Inception

French Utopian Socialist

Henri de Saint-Simon, c/1820.

According to his biographer Fr. Cyril Martindale, the idea of a novel about the Antichrist was first suggested to Fr. Benson by his friend and literary mentor Frederick Rolfe in December 1905. It was Rolfe who also introduced Mgr. Benson to the writings of the French Utopian Socialist Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon.  According to Fr. Martindale, as Benson read Saint-Simon's writings, "A vision of a dechristianised civilisation, sprung from the wrecking of the old régime, arose before him and he listened to Mr. Rolfe's suggestion that he should write a book on Antichrist." 

Writing during the pontificate of Pope Pius X and prior to the First World War, Monsignor Benson accurately predicted interstate highways, weapons of mass destruction, the use of aircraft to drop bombs on both military and civilian targets, and passenger air travel in advanced Zeppelins called "Volors". Writing in 1916, Fr. Martindale compared Mgr. Benson's ideas for future technology with those of legendary French science fiction novelist Jules Verne. 

However, Mgr. Benson also presumed the survival of European colonialism in Africa, the continued expansion of Imperial Japan, and that predominant travel would continue to be by railway. Like many other Catholics of the era in which he wrote, Monsignor Benson believed in Masonic conspiracy theories and shared the political and economic views of G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. 

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In the article entitled, "Why Are 2 Different Popes Telling Us to Read Lord of the World?" by Colin O'Brien | Apr 08, 2016 , he stated:

"Pope Francis raised eyebrows in 2013 and again in 2015 when he recommended Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World to the faithful as a book that depicts a “globalization of hegemonic uniformity.” Similarly, then-Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, referred to the Universalism depicted in Lord of the World in an address he gave in Milan in 1992."

Mr. O'Brien went on to expounded upon how the above mentioned book parallels with our world in the 21st century.

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Lord of the World Summary    

Ave Maria Press - Dec 21, 2016 

Robert Hugh Benson’s dystopian novel Lord of the World describes a future where faith in God and religion has been replaced by secular humanism.

Many Catholics have abandoned the faith and even priests have defected. Few religious enclaves are scattered throughout the globe, but they face the growing popularity of this new secular ideology. The leaders of the secular government see the Church as a blockade to progress and thus view it as an enemy.

The story follows Father Percy, one of the few remaining faithful. A pillar of faith in within the crumbling Church, he tries to bolster his fellow faithful Catholics but faces many obstacles, primarily the meteoric rise to power of the mysterious Julian Felsenburgh.

Promising peace and harmony in exchange for obedience, Felsenburgh quickly becomes a dominant figure in world politics. The crowds love him, but Percy remains cautious.

As Felsenburgh begins exercising his newfound power, his influence continues to spread; any resistors of this new rationalist regime are subject to torture and execution. Percy and the remaining faithful maintain their beliefs in the face of such peril, but their situation becomes increasingly dangerous.

As the Church continues to disintegrate around him, Percy too begins to rise to power as the new Pope. He struggles with how to face Felsenburgh, who has become ruler of the entire world. Percy and the remaining faithful gather in Rome to try and prevent an upcoming apocalypse at the hands of Felsenburgh. A climactic battle ensues between the two parties, which will have earth-shaking consequences.