Why 3 Popes Say the Antichrist Novel \u2018Lord of the World\u2019 Predicted Our Times In Benson\u2019s prophetic vision, the Church persists amid a godless world obsessed with progress, pleasure and power. In 2015, on a flight back to the Vatican from the Philippines, Pope Francis told journalists: \u201cThere is a book \u2026 it is called Lord of the World. The author is Benson \u2026 I suggest you read it. Reading it, you\u2019ll understand well what I mean by ideological colonization.\u201d He went on to describe the novel as prophetic, especially in regard to modern developments such as secularism, relativism and the notion of \u201cprogress\u201d detached from any spiritual or moral anchor. The book in question \u2014 Lord of the World (1907) \u2014 is a dystopian, apocalyptic novel by English convert Father Robert Hugh Benson. It foresees a 21st-century world in which Christianity has largely declined while secular humanism \u2014 or \u201cHumanitarianism\u201d \u2014 has seized power, with political and cultural elites uniting around a charismatic global leader. The Church \u2014 and the papacy \u2014 survive, if only barely, and that is the crux of the clash at the heart of the plot. To say the least, it was an unusual choice for any pope to recommend. But Pope Francis reiterated his suggestion in a 2023 talk in Budapest, warning his audience from the academic and cultural world about a future dominated by technology \u2014 and the threat that poses to culture and, ultimately, to what it means to be human. Pope Francis\u2019 predecessor, speaking as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had also cited Lord of the World in a lecture in Milan in February 1992, calling it a work that \u201cgives much food for thought.\u201d And Francis\u2019 successor, Pope Leo XIV, speaking in September 2023 as Cardinal Robert Prevost, likewise recommended Benson\u2019s novel, saying it warns of what could happen to a world without faith. Perhaps we should not be surprised that so much attention has been given to this novel, since its plot centers on a besieged pontiff in an age when religion is under attack from technologically superior secular elites. The son of a former Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Benson converted to Catholicism on Sept. 11, 1903, at age 31. He had published several fictional works before Lord of the World, most of which were historical fiction. His 1907 novel was therefore a departure on many levels, and raises the question: Where did it come from? \u201cBy the end of the 19th century, apocalypse literature was experiencing something of a renaissance, mirroring the burgeoning genre of science fiction,\u201d says author and commentator Kristen Van Uden Theriault. Speaking to the Register, she said she sees that period as producing dystopian literature largely written from a positive secular perspective, yet still offering prophetic warnings about the dangers of unbridled technological advancement, collectivism and totalitarianism. She cites two works that stand out for adding religious context to dystopian literature: Vladimir Soloviev\u2019s 1900 allegorical Tale of the Antichrist and Benson\u2019s Lord of the World. She also perceives an intriguing link between this genre and St. John Henry Newman. Newman, both a contemporary of Benson and a fellow high-profile convert from Anglicanism, had written extensively on the Antichrist, focusing mainly on the rise of erroneous ideologies that prepared the world for his arrival. \u201cBenson and Newman both recognized the dangers of modern ideologies \u2014 namely communism, socialism and Modernism, but also Liberalism, which can be characterized as the temperate, slow-moving version of these more radical counterparts,\u201d continued Theriault. At the center of Newman\u2019s warning, she suggested, is \u201cthe tyranny of subjectivism\u201d: the desire to confine religion to a matter of personal conscience rather than perceiving it as objective truth. She says Benson\u2019s fictional system of Humanitarianism \u2014 a godless replacement for religion \u2014 \u201cencapsulates the societal forces Newman warned of. The social order, which once resembled the hierarchy of heaven, now being made in the image of fallen man.\u201d So, given that the novel is set in the 21st century, how prophetic does she find it today? Theriault sees it as being \u201cprescient in many ways.\u201d She points to Benson\u2019s predictions of an international governing body \u2014 similar to the League of Nations and later the United Nations \u2014 and to institutionalized euthanasia, especially given the Canadian \u201cMedical Assistance in Dying\u201d law. \u201cIn a deeper sense, his depiction of a godless society led by pleasure, scientism and rejection of God reads like a description from our century. Life is cheap in Benson\u2019s apocalyptic hellscape, as it is in our contemporary culture of death,\u201d she adds. By the end of Benson\u2019s novel, the Church may be but a remnant and the Antichrist seemingly triumphant. Yet Theriault believes the book\u2019s message remains \u201cthat of all truly Catholic writing on the Antichrist: one of hope. Despite Antichrist\u2019s devious scheming, we know who wins in the end.\u201d As a novel that provokes theological debate, it works \u2014 but as a work of fiction, how does it stand up today? \u201cBy the beginning of the 20th century, dystopian, futuristic novels were a dime a dozen: a dark, depressing, ill-written pile,\u201d observed novelist and scholar Eleanor Bourg Nicholson. Yet she finds Benson\u2019s novel different. \u201cPart speculative and part mystical, [it] stands out for two reasons: First, it presents real and vivid characters \u2014 believable and relatable men and women \u2014 not merely a proselytizing allegory; and second, because it boldly faces the dark, oppressive reality that the world must and will end, and sees that reality through the eyes of faith.\u201d One of the great strengths of the speculative genre, she said, is its opportunity for readers to engage with deep moral questions. \u201cWhat is man\u2019s relationship with God? What is the purpose of religion? What is the purpose of man\u2019s very existence? Life and death, salvation and damnation \u2014 they can be found at the heart of many such works, and they are certainly deep in the heart of Lord of the World.\u201d Perhaps this alone accounts for its appeal to popes and prelates. Nicholson also senses a prophetic quality to the book, seeing many of its elements unfolding in modern life. \u201cBenson conceives of the Antichrist as a pleasant, inoffensive politician, a charismatic figure promoting \u2018peace\u2019 \u2014 someone we can easily imagine garnering public appeal in our own time,\u201d she observed. Speaking to the Register, author and editor Joseph Pearce likewise sees Benson as \u201ca visionary,\u201d noting that his unexpected novel paved the way for later works such as Huxley\u2019s Brave New World and Orwell\u2019s Nineteen Eighty-Four. \u201cBenson was ahead of his time \u2014 a pioneer, avant-garde in the true and fullest sense of the word,\u201d Pearce said, adding, \u201cThe book was evidently very influential on the 20th century and would appear to be speaking as ominously to our own century. The endurance of relevance is one of the marks of a great book, and this is clearly a great book.\u201d Benson did write, if not exactly a sequel, then a book with a similar theme but a wholly different perspective, Pearce noted. \u201cIt seems to be true that he wrote the subsequent futuristic novel, The Dawn of All, to provide a positive spin on the gloominess of Lord of the World. But I don\u2019t think that the Apocalypse is gloomy from a Christian perspective. Insofar as the novel ends apocalyptically, it heralds the Second Coming promised by Scripture. \u201cHow is that anything but the happiest of endings?\u201d This article was originally published by NCRegister. Receive the most important news from EWTN Vatican via WhatsApp. It has become increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social media. Subscribe to our free channel today EWTN Vatican on WhatsApp K.V. 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