In Volume III, the main protagonist imminently expects the Antichrist.
In Volume I, Roger Bacon sees the Antichrist - in a drug-induced vision.
In Volume IIa, Armageddon happens without the Antichrist. When the black magician complains that this breaks the Law, a major demon retorts:
"WE WILL DO WITHOUT THE ANTICHRIST. HE WAS NEVER NECESSARY. MEN HAVE ALWAYS LED THEMSELVES UNTO ME."
-ASK (London, 1991), p. 423.
In Volume IIb, the white magician thinks that a newly elected demon Pope is the Antichrist whereas instead he is the Vicar of the new God.
Some Christians have put the Antichrist into novels but have failed to make their good side remotely appealing.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Blish is correct, in our weakness and proneness for doing evil, we human beings don't NEED the Anti-Christ for being bad.
What were some of these novels by Christians (Catholics? Protestants?) who included the Antichrist as a character? Aside from Lewis and Blish's novels I don't really have many books which might be called theological novels. I do have the novels of Charles Williams, which does revolve around philosophical and theological ideas. Examples of his works being ALL HALLOWS EVE, THE PLACE OF THE LION, and DESCENT INTO HELL.
Charles Williams was a devout high church Anglican and a friend of C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien. And very plainly a learned and cultured man. I suspect the writers you alluded to were NOT like Williams.
Sean
Sean,
A Catholic called Benson wrote THE DAWN OF ALL and LORD OF THE WORLD. Two Evangelicals co-wrote LEFT BEHIND.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I've actually read one of Robert Hugh Benson's novels: COME RACK! COME ROPE! but not the other two of his books you listed. And I have heard of the LEFT BEHIND books, but the anti Catholicism in them prevents me reading those books.
A more recent novel by a Catholic featuring the Antichrist is FATHER ELIJAH, by an author whose name slips me just now. The comments I've seen about that book makes it seem interesting, but I've not read it.
Darn! So many books I've not read!
Sean
Sean,
LEFT BEHIND is dreadful. Sincere Catholics are damned.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
That is what I've seen said about the LEFT BEHIND books, that they are viciously anti Catholic. So, I've no interest in them. I would prefer to look up either FATHER ELIJAH or one of Robert Hugh Benson's other books.
Sean
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