The Dawn of All

“We are told occasionally by moralists that we live in very critical times, by which they mean that they are not sure whether their own side will win or not. In that sense no times can ever be critical to Catholics, since Catholics are never in any kind of doubt as to whether or no their side will win. But from another point of view every period is a critical period, since every period has within itself the conflict of two irreconcilable forces. It has been for the sake of tracing out the kind of effects that, it seemed to me, each side would experience in turn, should the other, at any rate for a while, become dominant, that I have written these two books.” – taken from the Preface of The Dawn of All. Robert Hugh Benson was a creative novelist of prose and authored the noteworthy dystopian book Lord of the World. His work incorporated classical, horror and science fiction, contemporary fiction, stories for children, plays/dramas, apologetics, religious writings and articles. He became persistent with his literary career all at once as he advanced throughout the hierarchy to become a Chamberlain to the Pope and afterward labelled Monsignor.Robert was the youngest son of Edward White Benson, the Archbishop of Canterbury and his wife, Mary, and the younger brother of Edward Frederic Benson and A. C. Benson. Robert studied at Eton College and later took up classics and theology at Trinity College, Cambridge. Robert was ordained as a minister in the Church of England by his father, who was the then Archbishop of Canterbury.After the death of his father, Robert went on to travel to the Middle East to recuperate his own health condition. While there he started to ask the standing of the Church of England and to regard the allegations of the Roman Catholic Church.