Select Works of Robert Hugh Benson (12 vols.)

by Robert Hugh Benson

Publishers:

Burns and Oates; Longmans, Green, and Co.; Catholic Truth Society

and

2 more

, 1906–1917

Overview

Explore these fascinating volumes by significant English literary figure and Roman Catholic priest Robert Hugh Benson. Benson was a noted author of fiction, as well as a persuasive writer of sermons, essays, and poems. A novelist at heart, Benson wrote works that appealed to the common man. His dystopian book Lord of the World was one of the first of its kind and perfectly captured the danger of replacing faith with the “modern mentality.” Benson’s conversion from an Anglican priest to a Catholic priest, his deep and abiding affection for his Anglican brothers, and his ability to speak to the common man all offer a unique perspective and valuable guidance on living the Christian life of grace, faith, and charity.

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Key Features

• Presents the work of a significant literary and theological figure from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
• Forms a unique bridge between Catholic and Anglican beliefs
• Includes the groundbreaking dystopian novel Lord of the World and its companion volume, The Dawn of All

Product Details

• Title: Select Works of Robert Hugh Benson
• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Volumes: 12
• Pages: 2,721
• Christian Group: Catholic
• Resource Type: Collected Works
• Topic: Christianity

The Religion of the Plain Man

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: Burns and Oates
• Publication Date: 1906
• Pages: 186

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

“This book is intended for the ‘man in the street,’ who . . . has a certain claim on our consideration, since Jesus Christ came to save his soul,” writes Robert Hugh Benson in the preface to this volume. Covering topics on Catholicism, Benson bluntly states that this is not a scholarly book, dealing with man’s weakness rather than his strength, wherein the might of God is made manifest.

Paradoxes of Catholicism

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Publication Date: 1913
• Pages: 200

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

This volume offers a collection of sermons preached by Robert Hugh Benson in England, New York, and Rome. Titling this work Paradoxes of Catholicism, Benson contrasts such topics as individualism and unity, sanctity and sin, and joy and sorrow. He offers perspective on the figure of Christ as God and man, and on the divine and human nature of the Catholic Church. He also includes a sermon on the last seven words of Christ.

A Book of Essays

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: Catholic Truth Society
• Publication Date: 1916
• Pages: 206

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

This volume offers seven essays by Robert Hugh Benson on “Infallibility and Tradition,” “The Death Beds of ‘Bloody Mary’ and ‘Good Queen Bess,’” “Christian Science,” “Spiritualism,” “Catholicism,” “Catholicism and the Future,” and “The Conversion of England.” Published after his death, A Book of Essays includes a memoir of Benson’s life by Allan Ross of the London Oratory and a forward by C.C. Martindale.

Confessions of a Convert

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Publication Date: 1913
• Pages: 216

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Robert Hugh Benson reflects upon his journey from the Anglican Church to the Catholic Faith in this volume. He refers to his old belief system with respect and affection, not comparing the two, but rather chronicling his passage from one to the other.

Christ in the Church: A Volume of Religious Essays

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Publication Date: 1911
• Pages: 238

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

This collection of religious essays treats the dramatic scenes of Christ’s passion “in the hope that it may suggest a new point of view to . . . [those] who only desire to see the truth in order to grasp it,” writes Robert Hugh Benson in the preface. Benson divides this volume into four parts, “Christ in the Church,” “Life and Ministry,” “Passion and Rejection,” and “Failure and Triumph.”

Papers of a Pariah

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Publication Date: 1907
• Pages: 233

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Sitting in a train in 1904, Robert Hugh Benson befriended the man whose writings are presented in this volume. Benson was struck by his struggle to embrace a faith, and his ultimate acceptance into the Catholic Church shortly before his death was an inspiration to Benson. “He appeared to me to be an excellent example of what grace can effect on a perfectly simple soul which responds to it,” Benson writes of his friend. He believed that the writings entrusted to him shared the perspective of one looking at the Church from the outside in, but with an openness and simplicity which opened the door to “the grace of conversion.”

Lord of the World

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: Dodd, Mead and Company
• Publication Date: 1908
• Pages: 386

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

This work by Robert Hugh Benson is one of the first modern dystopian novels. Unlike many other books in the genre, however, the scenes of Lord of the World are eerily similar to today’s society. In Benson’s fictional world, a “benevolent” global government has replaced religion with a secular humanitarianism, euthanasia is legal and widely used, and relativism has replaced hope. The only resistance offered to this system is a rapidly shrinking Catholic Church. Though not as well known today as when it was first published, this work was recently praised by Pope Francis as depicting “the spirit of the world which leads to apostasy almost as if it were a prophecy.”

The Dawn of All

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: B. Herder
• Publication Date: 1911
• Pages: 434

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

After writing the dystopian novel Lord of the World, Robert Hugh Benson contrasted it with a second story in parable form, The Dawn of All—sketching a world where man has “rediscovered” ancient thought. Placed alongside Lord of the World, this volume offers itself as the other side of “the conflict of two irreconcilable forces.”

The Friendship of Christ

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Publication Date: 1914
• Pages: 192

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

This collection of 13 sermons—preached in Italy, England, and the United States—is divided into three parts: “Christ in the Interior Soul,” “Christ in the Exterior,” and “Christ in His Historical Life.” He discusses Christ’s passion and resurrection, the friendship of Christ, Christ in the Eucharist, and more.

Vexilla Regis: A Book of Devotions and Intercessions

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Publication Date: 1915
• Pages: 110

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

This volume is a book of consolation written for all people affected by World War I, to “supply material and suggestions for prayer.” Part 1 offers prayers for every day of the week, while part 2 offers 16 “Devotions: General and Particular” for soldiers and sailors, Christians dying without the aid of a priest, friends, allies, times of special distress and trouble, and other prayers such as the Miserere, and the Te Deum.

Sermon Notes, First Series: Anglican

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Publication Date: 1917
• Pages: 162

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Published after his death, this collection of devotional notes by Robert Hugh Benson reflects themes of his sermons preached during his time as an Anglican priest. He covers Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, ordinary days, and various sacramental principles in nature and grace.

Sermon Notes, Second Series: Catholic

• Author: Robert Hugh Benson
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Publication Date: 1917
• Pages: 158

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Robert Hugh Benson’s Catholic sermon notes are divided into seven categories: “On the Will,” “The Way, the Truth, and the Life,” “Four Miracles of Christ,” “Characteristics of the Christian Religion,” “Kikuyu Sermons,” “Uncatalogued Sermon Notes,” and “Loose Papers.” Among the subjects discussed are Christian renewal, the English martyrs, indulgences, and the Anglican Church.

About Robert Hugh Benson

Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914) was a Catholic priest and significant English literary figure. His father was the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England. “Hugh” Benson attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and was ordained as a priest in the Church of England in 1895. He converted to Catholicism and was received in the Church in 1903 and reordained a priest in 1904. He was eventually appointed as a Chaplain of His Holiness and given the title of Monsignor. Benson was widely acclaimed in his day as a writer of novels, particularly for his dystopian work Lord of the World. He also wrote a variety of other types of fiction, as well as poems, essays, and sermons.