The Lord of the World (Benson)

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Lord of the World , original edition 1907
Robert Hugh Benson. The Lord of the World (OT: Lord Of The World ). German EA Pustet Vlg. 1911

The Lord of the World , in the English original Lord of the World , is a novel by the British clergyman Robert Hugh Benson from 1906 . He is considered an important forerunner of the great dystopian novels of the 20th century such as George Orwell's "1984" or Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" .

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About a hundred years after the book was published in 1906, the American politician Julian Felsenburgh miraculously achieved worldwide peace and was subsequently recognized as President of all countries - after about 2000. Felsenburgh stands for a modernist humanism , for the principle of a purely secular state. He fulfills his office thanks to futuristic technology and a unique charisma. He recognizes the Catholic Church as his last opponent . The highest representative of a materialistic belief in humanity recognizes their insistence on a transcendent principle that is superior to the world as a threat and consequently pursues their complete, violent extermination.

Felsenburgh's opponent is the priest Percy Franklin. He barely escapes the complete destruction of the city of Rome in an airship . As Pope and representative of Christ under the name Sylvester III. he finally leads the few remaining righteous in an apocalyptic final battle near the Palestinian village of Armageddon against the secular world armed forces of Julian Felsenburgh.

While the world president - Julian Felsenburgh appears extremely briefly only four times in the entire book - only becomes tangible through his effect on others, the reader meets the enthusiastic humanist and Freemason Oliver Brand and his wife Mabel in his place . As a British politician of high standing, Brand has the vision of a rock castle to be converted into valid law and to be responsible for it in public.

Benson exemplifies the seductive effectiveness of the new political ideals of radical, materialistic humanism on the wealthy couple of the upper class: the euphoria over the overcoming of a threatening conflict between two once warring power blocs in the east and west, the serenity and the sole trust in the human Reason. In the new political and social culture, it is the only valid force for resolving human conflicts, for eliminating human suffering and for satisfying all of their needs. The couple's trust extends to the euthanasia houses , where Oliver Brand will lose his wife.

For Mabel Brand, the contradiction between the humanistic ideal of man as the sole master of his fate and the appalling reality of persecution, pogroms and executions under the protection of that very humanism becomes an insoluble inner conflict. She pragmatically evades this through her suicide in a euthanasia house.

The story draws towards the inevitable end in two major storylines. From the point of view of the brands, the reader observes in the first strand the rise of Julian Felsenburgh to a world president with absolute power. He pursues the politician Brand as he succumbs to the ruler's charisma, as he and his wife willingly surrender to the cult of the new ruler. How Oliver is ultimately willing to give up even his own humanistic ideals and agree to the laws to persecute Catholics. How he gets into the airship that is to go into the final battle at Armageddon for Great Britain .

For Brand all of this is a logical, rational consequence of his fanatical humanism and Freemasonry . However, his wife and mother fail because of this enthusiasm. Brand's mother pleads for the sacraments of the Catholic Church as she dies and his wife tries desperately to understand the essence of the Christian faith before her suicide .

On the other hand, the second storyline is the development of the priest Percy Franklin. As the British correspondent for the Vatican, he is responsible for following political and social developments and reporting to his superiors in Rome. The Holy City was left to the Catholics by the secular powers; within its walls, the Pope is again recognized as the sole ruler and had to do without all churches and cathedrals in Italy (which he went into to secure a refuge for the church ). All trade and with it almost all technical achievements of modernity were banned from its walls. It is a haven of pure contemplation and faith. After Felsenburgh's appointment as British head of state, Franklin is called to Rome and becomes cardinal after the death of his superior . Together with the Pope, he is establishing a secret ecclesiastical order that is subordinate to the Pope alone. After learning in Rome of the preparations for an attack by British Catholics in London, Percy travels back to London to inform the government there of the plot. He hopes that by uncovering it in advance, the new powers will be able to trust the Roman forces and prevent feared retaliatory strikes as a reaction to the plot. The plan fails and as a result Rome is completely destroyed from airships with a new type of explosive (the atom bomb was not foreseeable when the book was written). Catholics must henceforth publicly profess the new, humanistic faith under threat of the death penalty.

After the death of the Pope, Percy, whose external resemblance to the Antichrist Felsenburgh is regularly pointed out, himself becomes Christ's representative. He withdraws to Palestine , the only place where he is beyond the reach of the world power of the Antichrist. From there he tries with the help of his secret order to reorganize the Catholics scattered around the world. However, after the betrayal by one of his cardinals, the secular world becomes aware of his whereabouts. When he summons his most important confidants from all over the world to a council in Palestine, the latter strikes mercilessly. The final battle assumes apocalyptic proportions; the novel ends with the appearance of the heavenly hosts .

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