BENSON, ROBERT H. — English convert, apologist, and novelist, born in Berkshire on 18 November 1871 and died in London on 19 October 1914. He studied theology at Cambridge, at Trinity College. Initially an Anglican minister (his father, Edoardo White, was archbishop of Canterbury), he soon perceived the inconsistency of Anglicanism and converted in 1903; in 1904 he was ordained a priest, and in 1911 became a Roman prelate. A writer of rare fecundity, he was one of the most interesting but also most controversial figures in the religious and literary history of contemporary England. A lively apologist and penetrating student of modern psychology, as well as an exquisite artist, perhaps surpassed only by Newman.
Among his works, the following are particularly noteworthy: Confession of a convert (London 1913), one of the most compelling works of its kind; The Lord of the World (ibid. 1907), an apocalyptic tale about the final days of the world, which aroused intense interest but also provoked bitter literary and theological controversies, to which he responded with another tale, The Dawn of all (ibid. 1910), on the same subject. In other novels—By oath Authority (ibid. 1904), The King's Achievement (ibid. 1905), The Queen's Tragedy (ibid. 1906), Come Rach, come Roise (ibid. 1912)—B. presents the history and defense of Christianity during the troubled age of Henry VIII, Mary, and Elizabeth; in still others he seeks, with great moral seriousness and highly effective form, to glorify the Ecclesia militans or also to demonstrate in a lively, original, and at times paradoxical manner the absolute inadequacy of modern science and material and mechanical progress to resolve the problems of life.
In the writings Christ in the Church (Italian translation by A. Tovini, Brescia 1936) and The friendship of Christ (Italian translation by E. Francia, ibid. 1931), he shows himself an ardent, experienced, and also original expositor of the doctrine of the mystical Christ.