Apocalyptic Advent With Benson’s “Lord of the World”

I finished The Lord of the World on Corpus Christ. It was POWERFUL! If you've read the book, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't, DO!

From The Imaginative Conservative

By David Deavel. PhD

Did you know that “Dies Irae,” the hymn about the “Day of Wrath” to come, was originally written for Advent?  While we know we must prepare for Christmas itself, the season is not merely about celebration of the first advent (or “coming,” from the Latin adventus) of Christ. It is also about preparing us for the second and glorious coming of our Lord to judge the living and the dead. We are watching and waiting not merely for the babe in the manger but also for the one from whose “mouth issues a sharp sword with which to smite the nations,” the one who “will rule them with a rod of iron” and “tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Revelation 19:15).

We must get ready for the end of the world.

So, what’s a good way to do that? Clearly, prayer, fasting, and alms are the right thing. These days, many people will suggest reading the newspaper. But if the news is good at letting us know how things are falling apart in various ways, it certainly doesn’t tell us how to think about them. To think about that, I want to suggest that you read a 115-year-old novel about the end of the world written by an English Catholic priest named Robert Hugh Benson.

The Lord of the World was published in 1907. Its author was the youngest son of a deceased Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury and the younger brother of several other famous writers. In 1903, Hugh (as he was known), then an Anglican priest himself, had shocked England by becoming Catholic. Alongside of Catholic priesthood, he had also taken up a career writing novels. By the time he died at the age of 43 in 1914, he had written fifteen novels, of which The Lord of the World is still perhaps the best known. Contemporary Catholic novelist Michael O’Brien has said it has influenced his own works, and both Popes Benedict XVI and Francis have talked about its prophetic character.

What’s the story? Set a century in the future (2007), Monsignor Benson’s novel depicts a world in which Christian faith has been melting away and an anti-Christian philosophy of Marxism and atheism has triumphed in much of the world. England has been a one-party state since 1917 and is part of a European confederation that still controls Africa. The United States is the center of an American Empire covering both Americas, while an eastern empire covers the rest of the globe. In religion, only Catholicism, some eastern religions (including Islam), and a growing secularism cover the earth. There are major highway systems, passenger air travel and warfare done with advanced zeppelins called “volors,” and cities constructed mostly using that wonder material… asbestos!

The main character in this book is Fr. Percy Franklin, a 33-year-old priest with prematurely white hair serving in London and tasked with reporting back to Rome on the conditions in England. He is contacted secretly by the mother of a member of the English Parliament, a woman who had been raised Catholic and wishes to return to her childhood faith in old age. The secret meeting does not quite stay secret, as it is interrupted by the woman’s son, Sir Oliver Brand, and his wife, Mabel, come home early from a talk by Julian Felsenburgh, a mysterious figure who has captivated European society.

Felsenburgh, who is a physical twin of Franklin’s, soon wins the hearts and minds of Europeans, becoming the President of Europe and then the world with his vision of peace and his messianic language of universal brotherhood. Even Fr. Franklin seems drawn by this charismatic figure at first. Felsenburgh soon establishes a humanitarian religion based on the rituals of Freemasons and celebrating natural life. Yet this humanitarian religion of Felsenburgh reveals its deadly side as mobs are sent to murder Christians. Rather than a Christ-figure, Felsenburgh is the Antichrist.

Summoned by Pope John XXIV to Rome, which has become a refuge for Catholics facing persecution all over the world, Fr. Franklin suggests to the pope that what is needed is a new religious order that would include people from all states of life—single, married, priests, bishops, and even the Pope—who would be prepared for martyrdom. Pope John follows this advice and creates the Order of Christ Crucified, whose main weapons are the Mass and the Rosary.

Fr. Franklin, who has been made the Cardinal Protector of England, is sent to England to stop a group of Catholics plotting a suicide bombing that would kill Felsenburgh and his inner circle. While on the way, his volor crosses paths with an enormous fleet headed to destroy Rome. In the aftermath, the remaining cardinals elect Franklin. Now named Pope Sylvester, he attempts while hiding in Nazareth to keep the worldwide flock of Christ together despite Felsenburgh’s brutal repression: the Test Act he institutes requires a denial of the faith or execution. It seems the final tribulation spoken of by the Scriptures and the Catechism is happening.

The ending is not to be missed. It is, as the kids say, “lit.” But you’ll have to read that for yourself. I think this book is so perfect for Advent and Christmas not just because much of the action takes place during that season (and you might note when the original Pope Sylvester’s feast day happens), but because of the depiction of how faith can be and stay “lit.”

More importantly, you’ll want to observe in this book the very central role prayer plays in Fr. Franklin/Pope Sylvester’s life. From beginning to end, it is the consistent practice of putting himself into God’s presence, described in thrilling and sometimes very practical terms, that strengthens him. When he is tempted by the charismatic Felsenburgh, when he is tempted by despair to think Catholic faith “a candle of folly” and a “lost cause,” and when he looks on the prospect of the end of the world, it is his connection to Christ in prayer that prepares him. The book is a cracking tale of science fiction and alternate history, but the lessons it teaches have to do with spiritual facts fitting for your Advent preparations.