The
novel Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson is one both recommended by Popes Benedict XVI and
Francis. When two popes recommend a
novel, you make an effort to read it. We
read it at our Catholic Thought Book Club at Goodreads.
You
can find a good online version here:
RobertHugh Benson was a priest and Catholic convert from Anglicanism. He was a rather high profile convert since
his father was the Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest religious position of
Anglicanism. It caused quite a controversy
at the time. Back in November of 2018 I posted
three times on his memoir, Confessions of
a Convert. You can find those posts
here.
Benson
had quite a career as a writer which included devotionals, apologetics, autobiographical,
and fiction. He was quite a prolific
writer of novels. Lord of the World is a dystopian novel written in 1907 but set a
hundred years into the future. That
would make the novel setting now! The
novel’s premise is that the world has come to be dominated by secular humanists
through Freemasonry and Catholicism is the only religion left to oppose its
worldview. The novel reaches an apocalyptic
conclusion.
In
the book club discussions, I gave a chapter by chapter summary of which I’ll include
in these posts.
###
Summary:
Prologue:
A
conversation on the state of the world between Fr. Percy Franklin, Fr. John
Francis, and Mr. Templeton, an old gentleman who has lived through the previous
century. The time is about a hundred
years from the writing of the novel, which would make it the early years of the
21st century. The world is now being
dominated by absolute materialists. Most
nations have been eliminated, and the world is dominated by Marxist entities. Three factions exist: A European
confederation of Marxist states, an Asian empire ruled by a "Son of
Heaven" emperor, and an American Republic consisting of North, South, and
Central American entities. The world's
belief systems now consist of only three: secular humanism, Roman Catholicism,
and an assortment of Eastern religions.
Book
I, Chapter 1:
We
meet Oliver Brand, a Labour Minister of Parliament, and through his dialogue
with his secretary, Mr. Phillips and his wife Mabel, learn that an apocalyptic
war between the European confederation and the Asian Empire is looming. Only America through the person of Mr.
Felsenburgh may be able to head off this Armageddon. While Oliver prepares a speech at breakfast,
and Brand comes to the conclusion that all the religions in Asia are to blame
for the Eastern Empire's aggression. He
considers how the elimination of religions in the west, except for pockets of
Catholicism, has created the ideal state.
On the way to her workplace, Mabel witness an enormous accident, a valor
(some sort of flying locomotive) had fallen out of the sky killing all the passengers. She witnesses a priest, Fr. Percy,
administering last rites. She returns
home where she discusses the events with Oliver, who ridicules the
superstitious religion.
###
Galicius
Commented:
I found the volors
problematic throughout the novel. At best, I visualized them as Zeppelins in
their slow movement. The science part of Benson’s novel is not his strong
point.
My
Response:
Was it a Zeppelin? For
some reason I got the impression it was some sort of flying train. According to
this Sansagent dictionary: http://dictionary.sensagent.com/volor/en-en/
"Volor is a
futuristic aerial vehicle which seems to resemble a cross between a Jules
Verne-designes airplane and an ornithopter, featured in the fiction novel
"Lord of the World", written by Robert Hugh Benson. In his novel,
they are used for both civilian air travel, much like todays airlines, and for
military purposes. Early in the novel a volor crashes onto a crowded transit
platform similar to a train station. The interior is described as having a
central passage with cabins to the left and right, enclosed by glass
doors."
I guess the train
station-like platform caused me to think flying train. I haven't read Jules
Verne but it does sound like an airplane and an ornithopter is an airplane that
flaps wings like a bird. I think it is meant to be a mechanical device and not
a balloon. I guess Benson couldn't envision propeller or jet fueled planes. He
was thinking bird wings.
Some
of my short comments:
It is…amazingly prophetic
in some respects to today's world.
It certainly would be
interesting to know if Orwell had read this.
That's why it's a
dystopia! The very opposite of heaven.
By the way, the language
mentioned in the book Esperanto was a real artificial international language
created about twenty years before Benson wrote the book. Here from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto
Exactly. All these made
up languages have all failed.
###
Book
1 Chapter 2
We
meet Fr. Percy Franklin, part of the Cathedral staff at Westminster. He writes a letter to the Cardinal in Rome
about the potential law establishing Esperanto as the official language, the
success of Freemasonry in the culture, the abdication of a number of priests to
the Freemasons, but the conversion of the Anglican Archbishop to
Catholicism. He meets with Fr. Francis
who is there to tell him he no longer believes in Christianity and has
renounced his religious vows. Afterward
Percy goes into the chapel where he prays and speaks to God on this
crises. He has a mystical vision of an
upcoming apocalypse. That evening he
discusses at dinner with the other priests at the Cathedral the state of the
world, the increasing power of the Freemasons, Felsenburgh, who is a freemason
himself, and of the abdication of priests.
A Fr. Blackmore connects the state of world to the anti-religious
precepts of the freemasons, implying a Satanic association.
###
I
found section II of chapter 2 to be one of the best depictions of a person in
prayer in all of literature. If you've
read it, go back and read it again. It's
worth a second read with that in mind. I
would post the entire section here but it's too long. Let me post two parts.
First
when he first walks into the chapel.
It was drawing on towards
sunset, and the huge dark place was lighted here and there by patches of ruddy
London light that lay on the gorgeous marble and gildings finished at last by a
wealthy convert. In front of him rose up the choir, with a line of white
surpliced and furred canons on either side, and the vast baldachino in the
midst, beneath which burned the six lights as they had burned day by day for
more than a century; behind that again lay the high line of the apse-choir with
the dim, window-pierced vault above where Christ reigned in majesty. He let his
eyes wander round for a few moments before beginning his deliberate prayer,
drinking in the glory of the place, listening to the thunderous chorus, the
peal of the organ, and the thin mellow voice of the priest. There on the left
shone the refracted glow of the lamps that burned before the Lord in the
Sacrament, on the right a dozen candles winked here and there at the foot of
the gaunt images, high overhead hung the gigantic cross with that lean,
emaciated Poor Man Who called all who looked on Him to the embraces of a God.
(p. 28)
Beautifully
written. And then the paragraphs where
he has a mystical vision.
He saw the Body Mystical
in its agony, strained over the world as on a cross, silent with pain; he saw
this and that nerve wrenched and twisted, till pain presented it to himself as
under the guise of flashes of colour; he saw the life-blood drop by drop run
down from His head and hands and feet. The world was gathered mocking and
good-humoured beneath. “He saved others:
Himself He cannot save.... Let Christ come dozen from the Cross and we will
believe.” Far away behind bushes and in holes of the ground the friends of
Jesus peeped and sobbed; Mary herself was silent, pierced by seven swords; the
disciple whom He loved had no words of comfort.
He saw, too, how no word
would be spoken from heaven; the angels themselves were bidden to put sword
into sheath, and wait on the eternal patience of God, for the agony was hardly
yet begun; there were a thousand horrors yet before the end could come, that
final sum of crucifixion.... He must wait and watch, content to stand there and
do nothing; and the Resurrection must seem to him no more than a dreamed-of
hope. There was the Sabbath yet to come, while the Body Mystical must lie in
its sepulchre cut off from light, and even the dignity of the Cross must be
withdrawn and the knowledge that Jesus lived. That inner world, to which by
long effort he had learned the way, was all alight with agony; it was bitter as
brine, it was of that pale luminosity that is the utmost product of pain, it
hummed in his ears with a note that rose to a scream ... it pressed upon him,
penetrated him, stretched him as on a rack.... And with that his will grew sick
and nerveless.
“Lord! I cannot bear it!”
he moaned....
Superb! That whole section II is superb.
###
Kerstin
Commented:
I find the name
‘Felsenburgh’ interesting. The German word “Felsen” means rock or boulder. The
word for fortress is “Felsenburg” or the short version, “Burg”, which can also
mean castle.
These are all war-like
terms invoking fortification.
Also Martin Luther comes
to mind and his most famous hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.”
My
Reply:
That's pretty interesting
Kerstin. I do believe it has merit. Oliver Brand made me think of Oliver
Cromwell, the Puritan who overthrew the English monarchy and prevented
Catholicism from making a comeback. Percy, now that I think on it, recalls
Percival, the Knight of the Holy Grail legends. One had to be a holy knight to
have achieved the grail.
My
Comment in Reply to world of the novel being tame compared to the 20th
Century:
I don't know how far you
are. I'm just through that last chapter I summarized above. Part I is called
The Advent, so I imagine there is going to be more.
The main theme is
striking, though, in its prophesy, that is the elimination of God through
humanitarianism, whether it be through socialism or freemasonry. So far I am
captivated by this novel.
Also, back to the 20th
century let's not forget that Nazi was an acronym for National Socialism.
Somehow the socialism seems to get forgotten.
My
Comment in Reply to a secular view of the universe:
Thanks Joseph, that is
remarkable. That scientist says to remember the "intimate and enduring
connections that we have with the rest of the cosmos."
LOL, what intimate and
enduring connection do we have if it's not through God? What intimate
connection do I have with the dirt on the surface of Neptune or the gases in
that atmosphere of Jupiter? Without the notion of God, the universe is a
hostile and incredibly dangerous place which at any moment can destroy the
entire planet. The rest of the cosmos is a caustic place for all human life.
But the secular have to
find a means to connect. Otherwise they are just random atoms placed together
by chance. Unfortunately they are blind to the notion that God exists.
###
Book
1 Chapter 3
Oliver
Brand is going to make a speech commemorating the 50th anniversary
of the “Poor Laws” reform and socialist politician responsible for getting them
passed, Braithwaite. During the middle
of the speech a terrorist attempts to shoot Brand, sending the gathered crowd
into a stampede. We learn that Brand is
only slightly injured with a flesh wound to the arm and the terrorist, a
Catholic, is trampled and killed. When
he comes home and discusses it with Mabel, he notices that his mother seems to
have Catholic sympathies. Shortly Oliver
has to leave for Paris where a diplomatic gathering is to convene, and while
away his mother grows ill. When Oliver
returns later than expected he tells Mabel that Felsenburgh has resolved the
conflict between Europe and Asia, and war has been avoided.
###
My
Comment in Reply to why Oliver is so Anti-Christian:
Three thoughts on why
Oliver is so anti Christian. (1) It would be a scandal as has been mentioned.
He is essentially the Prime Minister in a world that is completely
materialistic. Politicians have to have their constituents identify with them.
He would lose public support. (2) Look at the historical anti Catholicism in
England from Henry VIII on to the 20th century. I can't expound on it here, but
it was virulent. It improved over the 20th century. When Benson is writing this
it is still very strong, and so Benson is projecting it into the popular
culture of the novel. (3) Oliver really believes in his materialism. Why did
the communists root out religion in real life? Because it's fundamentally
contrary to their world views. Catholicism would undermine the foundation of
thei materialism. Why do the atheists attack us now? Same reason.
By the way, it dawned on
me that Benson caused a similar scandal in his life that would happen to
Oliver. If you remember Benson was the son of the Anglican Archbishop, and his
conversion to Catholicism caused such a scandal.
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