Course: Literature and Religion
Course Type: Major/ Specialization Elective
Theme: Eschatological Narratives: Faith and Stories of/about the End
Focus: Literature and the Catholic Perspective/Catholic Fiction
Text: Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson
(http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14021)
Prepared by: Isaiah Garcia
Method: Online Teaching and Learning: Group Discussion, Lecture, Recitation, Oral Reading, Reflection Essay Writing
Objectives:
At the end of the module, the students will be able to:
- discuss the formal elements of the novel;
- respond reflectively to the text and the lesson by writing short essays; and
- describe the eschatological view of the Catholic faith as imagined in the required novel.
Module for Online Session
| Task | Teacher’s Activity | Student’s Activity | Online Learning Tools |
| Introductory Task: Sharing Time | Ask the students about “End of the World” movies or TV series that they have watched.Synthesize the answers of the students. The goal of the activity is to let the students describe how popular media and culture have imagined the ‘end’ of the world. | Let the students share the movies/TV series under the “End of the World” genre that they have watched. | Learning Management System platforms of the school: Google Classroom, Blackboard, Canvass |
| Preliminary Lecture: Discussion of the Literary and Historical Contexts of the Novel and the Author | Emphasize how all world religions involve stories about the end of the world. These stories are called eschatological narratives. Discuss the life of the author and the contexts of the novel.Writing Prompt 1: What does diversity of eschatological stories say about human societies? Introduce the novel Lord of the World as an example of Eschatological Fiction in the Catholic tradition. Group the students to report the formal elements of the novel. A group may be assigned to a specific element of fiction (for instance, one group may report the plot, another the character description, etc.). | Allow the students to note the key points raised in the lecture.Ask the students to answer the writing prompt. They may submit via their LMS.Let the students discuss with their group mates the formal elements of the text. | Learning Management System platforms of the school: Google Classroom, Blackboard, Canvass |
| Lecture- discussion of Lord of the World as Catholic Eschatological Fiction | Ask the students to present their reports. A student may ask questions to his or her classmates to further elaborate on the elements. The following questions may be asked:What kind of world is being described in the novel?How do the characters in the novel view religion, especially Catholicism?What are the parallels between the new Pope, Father Percy Franklin, and the Anti-Christ, Julian Felsenburgh?Contrary to modern and popular conceptions of the Anti-Christ as the devil in human form, Felsenburgh seems to be human, a politician who became popular because of his statements on peace, why did the author choose to portray the Anti-Christ this way?The novel ends with the bombing of the last surviving Christians in Jerusalem with the line: “Then this world passed, and the glory of it,” how does this passage reflect the Catholic eschatological worldview?The novel seems to lack fantastic or supernatural events, even though it tells the story of the end of the world, and the Anti-Christ. Is this a strength or a weakness of the story? | Let the students present their reports.Allow the students to note the key points raised in the lecture. | Learning Management System platforms of the school: Google Classroom, Blackboard, Canvass |
| Wrapping up: Reflection Essay Writing | The following prompts may be given for reflection paper writing: The novel heavily deals with the issues of persecution and belief. How do you deal with people whose beliefs are different from your own?How does the novel fit Marianne Crowe’s definition of the Catholic novel? In what ways do the Catholic eschatological view differ from /similar with your own belief about the ‘end’? | Let the students post their answers on the discussion thread posted in their LMS classrooms. | Learning Management System platforms of the school: Google Classroom, Blackboard, Canvass |
Outputs and Assessments: Reflection Essays, Group Reports/Presentation
Rubric for Writing Tasks
| Criteria | Excellent | Fair | Needs Improvement |
| Content | Student was able to show careful and critical reflection. Insights were based on the topic. | Student was able to show an attempt in presenting a good reflection. Insights were a bit off topic. | Student was not able to present a good reflection. Insights were off topic. |
| Language | Written output is coherent and is grammatically correct. | Written output is coherent. Few errors in grammar were found. | Written output is incoherent and has numerous errors in grammar. |
Rubric for Group Report
| Criteria | Excellent | Fair | Needs Improvement |
| Content | Students have shown mastery and understanding of the topic. | Students have shown an understanding of the topic. | Students have failed to demonstrate understanding of the text. |
| Language | Students have presented their report and arguments using clear, well-articulated, and engaging language. | Students have presented their report and arguments using clear language despite few errors in grammar and delivery. | Students have failed to present a clear and coherent report. |
| Presentation | Presentation shows that the students are well-prepared for the discussion. | Presentation shows that the students have prepared yet are still lacking in some aspects of the presentation. | Presentation displayed no effort and preparation. |
Critical Notes on the Text
- Catholic Fiction
What makes a short story or novel Catholic is difficult to define. One can assume that if a devout Catholic writes fiction, the work immediately becomes Catholic. While this may be an easy way to settle the issue, this is problematic as most Catholic writers would reject this logic and label. Some say that the use of Catholic images and characters is good enough to pin a work as Catholic, but this is, once again, problematic as Catholic images have been found in the works of writers who have rejected Catholicism and everything associated with it.
So, what is Catholic fiction? To answer this question, we turn to the definition proposed by the scholar Marianne Moore in her study of British Catholic novels entitled Aiming at Heaven, Getting the Earth: The English Catholic Novel Today in which she says:
A Catholic novel is a work of substantial literary merit, in which Catholic theology and thought have a significant presence within the narrative, with genuine attention to the inner spiritual life, often drawing on Catholicism’s rich liturgical and sacramental symbolism and enriched by the analogical Catholic Imagination (2007: 24).
From this definition, we can see how Catholic fiction, while steeped in the tradition of liturgical and theological symbolism, must first and foremost be a work of ‘literary merit’ that pays attention to the ‘inner spiritual life.’ Good Catholic fiction deals with issues of the spiritual dimension, and yet it must also speak to the human condition in a way that is, as Cardinal John Henry Newman puts it, “treated as a Catholic would treat them, and as he only can treat them (1873: 230).” This ‘Catholic treatment’ of issues would later be called the “Catholic imagination,” a worldview that insists on God’s presence in a very sinful and fallen world. The Jesuit Fr. Andrew Greeley remarks:
The Catholic Imagination in all its many manifestations (Tracy calls it “analogical”) tends to emphasize the metaphorical nature of creation. The objects, events, and persons of ordinary existence hint at the nature of God and indeed make God in some fashion present to us (2000: 17).
Catholic fiction, and Catholic Literature as a whole, need not to be pious or hagiographical. Many Catholic writers wrote violent stories and controversial pieces (for instance, the violence in Flannery O’Connor’s works and Graham Greene’s whiskey priest), yet beyond this is the palpable presence of the divine.
Notable developments in the tradition of Catholic fiction can be seen in countries where Catholicism is a minority or had undergone persecution, like Japan, England, and the United States of America, among many others. Prominent Catholic writers of the modern times include Flannery O’Connor, Shusaku Endo, Graham Greene, and Evelyn Waugh.
- Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson and Lord of the World
Robert Hugh Benson was an Anglican priest who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1903. He wrote numerous works ranging from theological treatises to novels. Benson was one of the prime movers in the Catholic Literary Revival in England, which began with the conversion of Cardinal St. John Henry Newman and culminating with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Many of his novels were apologetic in nature, that is, in defense of the Catholic faith. His stories also critiqued the rising popularity of materialism and nihilism, which he saw as a threat to the English people’s spiritual well-being (Pearce 2014: 137-140).
Lord of the World is said to be his best work. The novel tells of a dystopian future where the locus of spiritual and material power is the human person. Devoid of faith and spirituality and in the name of a false ‘universal brotherhood,’ society descended into chaos leading to the mass persecution of Christians.
Lord of the World received numerous commendations during its publication. Scholars compared it with the futuristic and ideological works of H.G. Wells and George Orwell. In recent memory, two Popes have endorsed Lord of the World as ‘prophetic’: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.
Suggested Readings and Module References
The information in this module was culled from the following online and printed references:
Benson, Robert Hugh. Lord of the World. 2016th ed., Ave Maria Press, 2016.
Crowe, Marian E. Aiming at Heaven, Getting the Earth: the English Catholic Novel Today. Lexington Books, 2007.
Greeley, Andrew. The Catholic Imagination. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000. Ebook.
O’Brien, Collin. “Hopes and Fears: Robert Hugh Benson’s Lord of the World.” DappledThings.org, 27 Apr. 2020, dappledthings.org/9306/hopes-and-fears-robert-hugh-bensons-lord-of-the-world/.
Pearce, Joseph. Catholic Literary Giants: A Field Guide to the Catholic Literary Landscape. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2014. Ebook.
___________, et al. “Robert Hugh Benson, Literary Converts, and the Church in a Dystopian Age.” Catholic World Report, 13 Nov. 2020, http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/11/13/robert-hugh-benson-literary-converts-and-the-church-in-a-dystopian-age/.
Reichardt, Mary. Exploring Catholic Literature. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. Ebook.
_____________., editor. Between Human and Divine: The Catholic Vision in Contemporary Literature. Catholic University of America Press, 2010.
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