A review by krazyceltic
Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson

2.0

This is Catholic dystopian fiction that starts very slow and initially reads like the fleshed-out fantasy of that really nerdy guy in your church who only talks about politics, conspiracy theories, and is obsessed about liturgical details. However, the book really starts to pick up and Robert Hugh Benson shows genius in predicting what happens in the world after Christian religion is overthrown, such as when the people almost immediately turn to worship of Man in the abandoned cathedrals, and in how the Antichrist pilfers phrases from Scripture to describe himself as the true Messiah and Lord of this world. The book then ends with a supreme letdown in a very very bleak eschatology, contra the arrival in heaven scenes of near-contemporary Protestant authors like MacDonald, Williams, and Lewis.