Lord of the World is a 1907[1] novel by
Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson that centers upon the reign of the Anti-Christ and the End of the World. It has been called prophetic by Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
Inception
According to his biographer, Fr. Cyril Martindale, Mgr. Benson's depiction of the future was in many ways an inversion of the science fiction novels of H. G. Wells. In particular, Benson was sickened by Wells' belief that Atheism, secular humanism, Freemasonry, anarchism, Marxism, radical feminism, Eco-terrorism, nihilism, World Government, and Eugenics would lead to an earthly utopia. Due to his depiction of a Wellsian future as a global police state, Benson's novel has been called one of the first modern works of dystopian fiction.
Also according to Fr. Martindale, the "guiding hand" in Benson's writing was that of his friend and literary mentor Frederick Rolfe. Rolfe's anti-Modernist satirical novel Hadrian VII influenced numerous aspects of Lord of the World, including the introductory first chapter.[3]
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, and passenger air travel in an advanced form of Zeppelin called the "volor". However, he also presumed the survival of the British Empire and predominant travel by rail. Like many other Catholics of the era in which he wrote, Monsignor Benson shares the political and economic views of G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc.
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