ABSTRACT
The rise of utopianism and the rise of science run almost parallel. The emergence of utopia coincides with periods of scientific discovery and with ages that are experimental and critical in spirit. Technical advancement provides one of the main sources for fantastic entertainment. Aeroplanes, rockets, houses, food, everything becomes a fitting subject for utopian scientific fantasy, even with religious apologists like R. H. Benson. Modern English religious utopias have mostly been written by converts to Catholicism. The basis for such utopias is provided by a church with stricter organization and by the added zeal of converts. Generally the religious idea and the spiritual life of the individual are not shown as dominant in a utopia. Lord of the World ends with the defeat and complete annihilation of the Catholic church at the hands of the representatives of the Religion of Mankind, a kind of evolutionary Socialism.
