Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson

Description

Lord of the World is a 1907 apocalyptic novel by Robert Hugh Benson. It is sometimes deemed one of the first modern dystopias. Michael D. O'Brien's Catholic apocalyptic series, Children of the Last Days follows a very similar theme as well. Essentially the novel imagines a socialist and humanist world where religion has been either suppressed or ignored. People have no history or hope so they often turn to euthanasia, which is legal. Further there is a “one-world” government that uses Esperanto for its language and ultimately becomes a servant of the anti-Christ. In brief: The Catholic Church has been suppressed by the rest of the world, which has turned to the religion of Humanity modelled on that of Auguste Comte. (A scene in which the Antichrist leads a massed congregation in the worship of a nude female statue in St. Paul's Cathedral is a more decorous version of the worship of the Goddess of Reason in Notre Dame de Paris in 1793. Pope John XXIV has made an agreement with the Italian government: the Catholic Church can have all of Rome, while all other churches in Italy are surrendered to the government. The deposed royal houses of the world (including the Chinese imperial dynasty, who have converted to Catholicism) are now resident in Rome. Ireland still remains staunchly Catholic, with small enclaves all over the world. Westminster Cathedral is the only church in London that is still Catholic. The rest have become Freemasonic temples. The plot then follows the tale of a priest, Percy Franklin, who becomes Pope Silvester III, and an unknown man named Julian Felsenburgh (who is identical in looks to the priest) who becomes “Lord of the World”.