Book Review: Lord of the World

When a book is recommended by both Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis it's worth considering. When that book is a 1984-esque scifi novel, well, I was intrigued. I'm not normally one to take book reviews from public figures too seriously but when two very, very different popes make a book recommendation it's worth heading.

The book? Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson, which tells the tale of a world gone fully secular. Protestantism is dead, Catholicism largely irrelevant to the public sphere, and Islam reduced to a handful of true believers. Secular humanism and all of the evils that are inevitable with it (loss of human dignity chief among them) reigns supreme. Into this environment a charismatic leader with an almost supernatural ability to charm people rises. Only the few Catholics in society oppose him, leading to the Church being driven underground. This novel is an end-times piece, a sort of Catholic Left Behind without any of the non-scriptural 'rapture' stuff that end-timers believe in for some reason.

Why was this book heavily recommended by Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis? If you read Lord of the World you'll see why pretty quickly. While the author gets a lot of his predictions about the future wrong (Telegraphs and typewriters in the mid-21st century?!) the meat of the story revolves around what St. John Paul II called the Culture of Death. Key features of the culture include rampant boredom, self-centeredness, and easily available euthanasia. One wonders if the author chose not to touch the issues of sexuality and abortion due to his own religious convictions and sense of propriety.

Regardless, euthanasia is a central and looming issue in the story. Instead of paramedics the emergency responders provide euthanasia. Depression, which runs rampant in the culture, can be cured with legally sanctioned suicide. If this seems far fetched consider that in 2013 the Dutch euthanized 650 newborn babies. Not abortions but the killing of newborn babies,sanctioned by the state and accepted by a population so numbed to the basic requirements of humanity because they have largely turned their backs on the faith.

That is the direction our culture is heading in, if Islam doesn't conquer the west first. Lord of the World details the rise of the anti-Christ amidst this cesspool of indifference, coming from the world of politics. He has no faith but in Humanity and institutes worship of idols to restore a sense of purpose in the population. He is seductive, mysterious, magnetic...and American. The author is British, which may explain that touch, though we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking that America couldn't produce such a figure.

Written in 1907 Lord of the World  is a startling book that is still relevant today for any Christian with a taste for science fiction. I recommend it highly, giving it 4/5 stars. My only complaint is that there are parts of the book written in Latin (having to do with the Mass) and, given that I am unfamiliar with the Tridentine Mass, don't understand Latin. Call that the failings of being a convert. The book can be purchased cheaply from Amazon through the link on the sidebar if interested.