“Friendliness took the place of charity, contentment the place of hope,
and knowledge the place of faith.”
Robert Hugh Benson, Lord of the World
(Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson)
First, read the following intro to a new book I’ve recently learned about, along
with a few of the following reviews—and then we’ll talk…
Oh, but keep this in mind, the book was written in 1907.
What would you do if you were living
at a time when the entire world regarded
Christianity as a dangerous superstition…
When governments ridiculed religion
and exalted the progress of humanity…
And materialism and psychology seemed
to provide for man’s every need?
Can you imagine a world where
faith is replaced by “information,”
hope with “contentment,” and
charity with “friendliness”?
Where politicians are lauded as prophets,
and the greatest politician of them all
is worshipped by the masses as the
Messiah, they’ve been waiting for?
A world where Humanitarianism is the
new “Kingdom of God,” and madness
descends like a fog on the nations?
What would you do if you saw priests, bishops,
and Catholic laity falling under this great delusion
and apostatizing from the Faith in masses?
What would it be like to see everything
and everyone rapidly coalescing into
two distinct yet unequal camps:
…the World and its massive secular power—
and the small flock of Christ’s true Church?
And all the while God
seems distant and silent.
His Church appears to be defeated,
with all hope lost; Rome seems
as vulnerable as a sandcastle
before the crashing tide.
The Church has no men who are
strong enough for the decisive
fight that is approaching.
Except one.
Father Percy Franklin.
On the surface, he is a young, unassuming priest,
but deep down he is a man-made for the times—
like a brilliant general who sees with strategic
and intuitive eyes the powers that are at play.
He rises in the ranks to lead the
Church in its darkest hour.
How will he endure the impending
assault of the world’s combined powers?
All this is the apocalyptic scene
placed before you by novelist
Fr. Robert Hugh Benson.
In this dystopian novel, we can
see prophetic elements of our
present real-world crisis.
“Classic and prophetic work.”
—Joseph Pearce
You will find yourself in a world
that feels hauntingly familiar…
…a world in which there is a magnetic
temptation to apostasy, and even the strong
struggle to keep their faith in Christ.
Author Robert Hugh Benson
will make you ask yourself:
Would my faith in Christ and His Church
remain unshaken if I lived in a world like this?
Robert Hugh Benson was a famous Anglican priest.
His father was the Archbishop of Canterbury.
But he stunned the world when he left the Church
of England and became a devout Catholic priest.
A brilliant author, he was also an astute
observer of the great world powers
that were at work in his day.
He predicted that a modern rise in mass communication
and weapons of mass destruction would culminate in a
future clash of the world against God and His Church.
‘Lord of the World’ is his apocalyptic novel,
written in the years leading up to the Great War—
the war that would bring Our Lady to Fatima—and
he places the reader into a prophetic re-telling
of the Book of Revelation.
“[Robert Hugh Benson] was a magnetic preacher,
an excellent story-teller, a ready writer; he had
enthusiasm and unremitting energy, a rich
imagination… but he knew that there was
only one relationship of absolute
value, that of the soul to God.”
Evelyn Waugh
Author & Convert
“Lord of the World is the right book for Christians
in the modern world—and there may be no
message more critical for our time.”
Most Reverend James D. Conley
Bishop of Lincoln
“A relevant and readable edition
of a harrowing 1907 novel that,
in places, seems all too
familiar and timely.”
Elizabeth Scalia
Acclaimed Catholic Writer
Ok, so let’s chat a minute.
Firstly, I’m not a big fan of fiction or novels.
I’ve always just preferred more actual, realistic, biographical or historical works.
But that’s not to say that I’ve not read my fair share of both good and bad fictional
tales over the years.
So I’ll admit that my interest was certainly piqued when reading this particular intro–
especially when I read the line
“Would my faith in Christ and His Church
remain unshaken if I lived in a world like this?”
For starters… because you and I need to understand that we are indeed living in such a world
as outlined in this intro of a 1907 dystopian novel.
The troubling thing is that we don’t exactly see or “get” that we are living in such a world.
And secondly, the question asked is a very relevant question for both you and me…
the question being, ‘would, or more likely will, our individual faith in both Christ and the
Christian Chruch remain in such an anti-Christian, anti Chruch, anti-Christ culture?
…Not simply be unshaken, but more correctly, will it actually remain??
Because the reality of this particular fictional tale is not whether or not we are actually
living in the world of this 1907 prelate’s fantasy—bur rather are we living one man’s
fantasy which has in actuality become our very own reality??
And thus the looming question that you and I need to be asking ourselves
is whether or not our faith is holding–
is it fast, firmed and fixed…
or is it simply slipping too quickly through our oh so slippery fingers of doubt?
I ordered the book.
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