Lord of the World (1907)

Monsignor Benson’s works are religious treatises in the form of historical, mystical, “apocalyptic” novels or plays. This is an English religious utopia rooted in fundamentalist Christian beliefs; although the author attempts to interweave the fictional aspects of the novel with the moral purpose of the parable, the strong didacticism of the long meditations on theological issues tends to prevail over plot and characterization. Catholicism must counteract a secular socialist thought: the anti-eschatological idea of a community in progress within a self-created world enables the Humanity Religion to discard ancient Christianity as a pathetic «exquisite piece of poetry» on transcendence. While Christian Theism submits human life on earth to the judgement of a supernatural God, socialist Pantheism worships manifold personifications of God: more appealing than abstract materialistic principles, Maternity at Christmas, Life in spring, Sustenance in summer and Paternity in autumn embody archetypal human values. The Doppelgänger motif, playing on the apparent identity but inner antagonism of Franklin and Felsenburgh, visually emphasises the dichotomy between Theism and Pantheism, the former elevating human life on Earth to a transcendent end, the latter focusing on the idea of God immanent as a source of mutual understanding among fellow-beings. The religious apologist deconstructs the feasibility of any utopian society established through socialist demagogy; only Catholicism can sustain man while pursuing universal peace. By dramatizing the violent annihilation of the Catholic dissenters, Benson envisions a repressive, secular dystopia against which he firmly advocates a Lord of a theocratic world.