Genre

Science Fiction, Dystopia, Classic Literature

Audience

Adult

Author’s Worldview

Catholic

Year Published

1907 (Voyage Comics edition: 2023)

Themes

Church vs World; end of the world; priests; popes; hedonism; socialism; communism; ideological colonization; Pope Francis

 

Reviewed by

Courtney Guest Kim

You may be curious to read this novel because Pope Francis has publicly endorsed it at least four times, and before him, Pope Benedict XVI referred to it. Considering that Pope Francis tends to be portrayed as aligning with trends in Western culture, you may be intrigued to discover that his favorite novel is a grim dystopia that depicts a Church entrenched in a last stand against a hegemonic combination of Western hedonism and socialism. You can probably recoup the cost of the book by betting your friends that they will never guess when it was written. With the new cover art and illustrations by Voyage Comics, this past-future alternative universe cuts too close to home for most people to get the correct answer: 1907.

Published a generation before Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), and nearly two generations before Orwell’s 1984 (1949), Lord Of The World is just as creepily prescient. Its protagonist has a greater depth of interiority as compared to those novels. The interactions between the characters are more realistic. And its plot is more suspenseful. How is it, then, that no one has heard of it, except for a couple of popes?

The glaring answer is that the protagonist of this novel is a priest. Its author, Robert Hugh Benson, was an Anglican minister whose father had been Archbishop of Canterbury. After his father’s death, Benson became Catholic, was ordained a priest, and wrote several novels. Whereas Huxley and Orwell describe a future in which Christianity has been edited out, Benson describes a confrontation between an embattled Church and a hostile Western secularism that has achieved world domination.

Two fascinating characters are a perfectly nice couple who will remind you of lots of people you know. They are pleasant, successful, attractive, and there’s really nothing wrong with them except that they identify so completely with the trending ideology that they simply cannot call into question anything that is considered normal, even when the consequences are—well, I don’t want to spoil the momentous plot twists.

Without spoilers, I can describe one aspect of Benson’s vision that is very much a reality today. In his dystopia, euthanasia has become the normal way to end a human life as soon as age or illness has put someone beyond fixing. Benson perceived that, if euthanasia is the appropriate solution for intractable physical illness, it should also logically be the solution for psychological distress: exactly the line of thought that Canada has been following. His description of a high-class suicide clinic to which respectable people can go to end their lives in comfort reads like a blueprint for current day Swiss suicide tourism. Benson takes the next logical step and describes the scene of an accident where the people who come rushing to help are not paramedics attempting to save lives but euthanizers whose job is to dispatch the wounded—painlessly, of course. Benson’s insight is that when a hedonistic culture makes pain the worst evil and socialist politics subsumes the individual to the collective, death really is the logical solution to any intractable problem.

Lord Of The World is a gripping read, fascinating at many levels. It is certainly not a feel-good story, but it will appeal to anyone who is interested in the relations between the Church and the world over the past century and into today. It is especially insightful in its examination of the interplay between rejection of faith at the individual level and official suppression of the Church by authoritative institutions. As Philip Kosloski’s Preface makes clear, discussing Pope Francis’s numerous public references to this novel, Lord Of The World illustrates the all too relevant phenomenon of ideological colonization.

Cinderella by Charles Perrault

The true story of the Catholic saint who inspired the myth of Cinderella

The Catholic Cartoon Collection, No.1 By, Joshua Masterson

Laugh out loud at the everyday hectic and holy moments of parish life with Father Otto.

The Catholic Origins of Dracula & Women’s Suffrage 

Did you know that Bram Stoker’s wife was a Catholic & he considered converting himself at one time?

Where to Begin with Flannery O’Connor

Flannery O’Connor dissected the Devil for a generation that was busy explaining evil away. She perceived God at work in grotesque places. Was she right?

Strange Matter by Brian Niemeier

Ready for the end of the world, battle mechs, and body swaps? This collection of short stories has it all.

Best Books of 2022

Our favorite book finds of the year!

Murder in the Vatican by Ann Margaret Lewis

Sherlock Holmes teams up with Pope Leo XXIII to solve crimes in the Holy City.

Do Carpenters Dream of Wooden Sheep? by Corinna Turner

A poignant retelling of the Holy Family in a cyberpunk universe.

Comet Dust by C.D. Verhoff

A Catholic end-of days inspired by the private revelations of the saints.

Books for Lent

Deepen your Lenten reflection with these stories of repentance and forgiveness

The Pre Persons by Phillip K. Dick

The pro-life Phillip K. Dick story so prophetic it was buried.

The Singer not the Song by Audrey Erskine Lindop (AKA The Bandit and the Priest)

A priest and a bandit king face off for the fate of a small Mexican town in this thrilling western adventure.

Where to Begin with C.S. Lewis

When he was four years old, C. S. Lewis renamed himself Jack and refused to answer to Clive Staples. For the rest of his life, he was Jack to his friends.

Breach! by Corinna Turner

Isaiah’s got a T-rex size problem, but this time, it’s not a dinosaur.

The Joining by J. H. Dierking

The aliens will surprise you and lead you into greater insight into how our own bodily design determines much of what is considered right and wrong.

A Truly Raptor-ous Welcome by Corinna Turner

There’s no such thing as a normal day on a dino-farm. But can Darryl and Harry’s new city-slicker stepmom make it through the first day without fainting?

Best of 2020

Yes some good things DID happen this year- Catholic creators have not let turmoil stop their mission.

The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas

Would you die for a flower? Would you kill for one? Providence, romance, and danger rule in this tense, heart-warming prison romance.

Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

In a post-apocolyptic world a small Catholic monastery fights to preserve civilization for the next age.

Leaf by Niggle…by J.R.R. Tolkien

Leaf by Niggle isn’t nearly as well-known as LOTR and The Hobbit, but it is as beautiful and moving in its own way.