“… at a Zero Hour when all is sin and shame …”
Toynbee, A Study of History, IV/584.
1.
A JEW who has finished reading Mr. Toynbee’s ten bulky volumes cannot help wondering whether the results of his running battle against Judaism and Jewry could be greatly satisfying even to the author himself. If Judaism, having started out as an ecumenical religion of human salvation, ran into a blind alley, only to perish as the “social cement” of a fossilized Jewry, who—one might be curious to know—has fared any better? The question is of genuine significance, for one best understands the nature of a failure if one is able to compare it with its successful opposite.
In the category to which the Western society belongs, it appears that some fourteen civilizations have perished. Of the others of the same species, the Islamic, the Eastern, and the Far Eastern, though still extant, are “almost certainly in articulo mortis”;1IX/412. they are all stricken, and their final disappearance seems to be only a matter of time. Only the “West” is left—and unfortunately not in a very healthy state either. As a result of its secularization the West has gone through a Second Fall; it has become the votary of a neo-paganism or neo-barbarism that threatens its own destruction from within.2VII/63; VIII/87; IX/457. Here, as so often in Toynbee’s work, it is not clear why he should be so hard on modern Western secularism, pretending at times that all was well with the West before the rise of European enlightenment and rationalism. Quite frequently, he dates the symptoms of “social breakdown” in the Western world from the sixteenth-century wars of religion. Secularism arose in reaction to the disappointing failure of religion.3See, e.g., VI/315-316. We recall his discussion with the Western rationalist, quoted above. There Toynbee actually confirmed the dismal failure of the Higher Religions in determining human behavior in history, by defending them with the argument that the six thousand years of civilization were an extremely short period, for one ought to measure history with the time-scale of modern physical and astronomical science. There is still so much time before the human race that one should withhold judgment.4VII/453, 506. Thus it is obvious that the record of the pre-secular centuries is not a very encouraging one either.5See, e.g., IX/426, where Toynbee’s criticism of Gibbon contains a succinct summary of the moral debacle of the entire course of Western history, beginning with its earliest days. Be that as it may, in view of the doubtful achievements of Western civilization, Toynbee himself applies to this lonely survivor of the species6IV/4; IX/412. the familiar lines from “The Ancient Mariner”:
The many men so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on: and so did I.
Now, the rather unpleasant survivor has already been overtaken by the “ominous symptoms” of disintegration. True, one may derive hope from the fact that at this juncture Western society has “certainly not yet arrived at the second rally in the disintegration-process” which is always recognizable by the “establishment of a Pax Ecumenica”; the universal state, which as a rule comes about before the final dissolution of a civilization, has not yet been established in the West.7VI/314; IX/464. However, just such a threat overhangs the Western horizon. The progress of modern technology, especially the newly acquired insight into the secret of atomic structure which gave Western civilization the atom bomb, may enable one great power to establish the unity of the ecumene with one knockout blow. Actually, Toynbee might have pointed out, two knockout blows by two opposing great powers may bring about the dissolution of Western society in one world-wide conflagration, without the old-fashioned, roundabout method of going through the sacrificial ceremony of first establishing a universal state. The knockout blow, this time, would have truly universal consequences; for the process of “Westernization” has by now reached all the corners of the earth. All mankind has become involved in the destiny of the West; “all Mankind’s eggs had been gathered into one precious yet precarious basket as a consequence of the Western Civilization’s World-wide expansion.”8IX/414. The situation is precarious because, as a result of the concentration of power, the direct outcome of relentless technological progress leaves only the Soviet Union and the United States to decide the issue upon which the future of man depends.
The present situation of the Western society is not altogether different from that of the Hellenic civilization before its final collapse. As then, so today, the crisis will be resolved not by political arrangements but by Man’s relations with God, his Savior. Once again Toynbee affirms that “the most adroit and opportune political engineering applied to the structure of a body social could never serve as a substitute for the spiritual redemption of souls.” All crucial questions of the present crisis are religious ones.9IX/347, and 449. But the future is not without hope. It would appear that, after all, this Western secularized, neo-pagan neo-barbarian did do a few things not too badly. He abolished slavery in the nineteenth century; he granted independence to India; he is approaching the final solution of the Negro problem in America. Our secularist neo-pagan has done all this thanks “to the continuing operation of a spirit of Christianity that had not lost its hold over the hearts of latter-day Western men and women when their minds had eventually rejected an outworn creed in which the abiding spiritual truths of Christianity had been translated into the ephemeral language of a pagan Hellenic philosophy.”10IX/457-461. This “operation of a spirit of Christianity” is the great advantage that the West possesses over the Hellenic world, which for the lack of it had to perish. Having accomplished so much, may not Western man hope one day to abolish war too, the only remaining threat to his survival?
One is somewhat puzzled by this turn in Toynbean thinking. The modern West has done so many things wrong because it is neo-pagan; it has done quite a few things well because it is Christian. In fact, the neo-barbarian West seems to be more truly Christian than its Christian medieval predecessor was. In a sense, it has liberated “the abiding spiritual truths of Christianity” from the shell of an “outworn creed” in which they were imprisoned by “the ephemeral language of a pagan Hellenic philosophy.”
Be that as it may, whilst there is hope nothing may be taken for granted. The progress of technology, which makes the threat to the future truly universal, contains also the potential for equally universal well-being. Perhaps most important of all, this progress has pushed the idea of a democratic world government within the scope of logical feasibility. But, as always, growth is from within. The “ripe fruits of Technology could not be harvested without a change of heart”; alas, of that “there was little sign” so far.11IX/542. Therefore, the patient’s prospects are “still enigmatic.” Neither a dogmatic optimism nor a dogmatic pessimism is warranted. Everything seems to hang in the balance, and the future cannot be foretold.12IX/535.
What then is to be done? What is the right deed that will save man? True to his main theme, Toynbee maintains that an act of reconversion is required of Western souls; man has to start out on “a fresh quest for the divine Dweller in the Innermost.” This may be also the answer to Communism, for “the idol Leviathan might still be triumphantly defied and defeated by souls contending for the liberty of Conscience and risking martyrdom for the glory of God.”13IX/629, 628, 625. These are noble thoughts, nobly expressed. It is rather a pity that they should require implementation in the life of man. As we have learned by now, man is—unfortunately—not a very reliable creature; he cannot save himself. If the future of our Westernized planet depended on man alone, our imminent destiny would be “Death and not Life.” But since we have no reason to assume that “God’s nature is less constant than man’s, we may and must pray that a reprieve which God has granted to our society once will not be refused if we ask for it again in a contrite spirit and with a broken heart.”14VI/320, see Psalms 34/18; 51/17. It is important to understand how Toynbee imagines the new reprieve for which man must pray. He does not require Western man to return to the “old-time religion.” It would be neither morally nor intellectually defensible for a post-Christian Western society to seek refuge from the impending storm in “the fold of a conventional Christian orthodoxy.” Such a return to the universal church would be a form of religious archaism, but archaism is always a trap and never a solution. Toynbee quotes and affirms the opinion that there is no hope in returning to a traditional faith after it has once been abandoned; “souls that have once had the experience of intellectual enlightenment can never thereafter find spiritual salvation by committing intellectual suicide.”15IX/630-1.
The Western agnostic has been disillusioned by agnosticism and rationalism, which have led him to the very brink of the abyss. He is on “the road back to Religion from Agnosticism” but must desist the temptation of running for shelter to one of the universal churches; it is his duty to ride out the storm. He must not forget that he is an “ex-agnostic.” He is penitent and contrite in spirit, but he cannot return to the fold because in the Christian Church Christianity has become “a petrified higher religion.” He is so deeply sorry for his past apostasy that his heart is filled with bitterness against those who share with him the responsibility for it; but “the responsibility for Modern Western Man’s apostasy was shared with the apostate by a Western Christian Church that had eventually alienated its long-suffering votaries by its grievous sins of both heart and head.” Thanks to the moral scandal of the savage Western wars of religion and the intellectual scandal of the reaction of a Western Church Militant to the movement of intellectual enlightenment, “the Western Church had forfeited Western Man’s esteem.” If the “ex-agnostic” went astray, it was because “The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick….” The ex-agnostic and the Church will never meet. God will judge both “the unfaithful shepherds and truant sheep”; in the meantime “a change of heart was required on both sides.” “Purification” is needed, “a winnowing the chaff out of the wheat.”
Neither the Church nor the “semi-penitent” agnostic is equal to such a task. In the opinion of Toynbee, “a petrified higher religion could not be requickened by methods that might serve for reconditioning an obsolete industrial plant. A futuristic reconstruction of Christianity by reconverted agnostics and an archaistic restoration of it by trustees of a traditional orthodoxy would both be impracticable for the same reason; and the reason was that no human hands could anticipate the operation of the Holy Spirit.”16IX/635-7.
The purification, the change of heart, will have to be the result of the operation of the Holy Spirit itself; once again it is affirmed that God alone is Savior. What Toynbee expects is a new Divine Epiphany. Modern man is passing through the Western society’s second bout of its Time of Troubles, which according to the rule could end in salvation only through the emergence of a universal religion. One should look forward to a new revelation, even to a new religion. Toynbee actually says so, when he suggests that the conflict between the remaining great powers, the Soviet Union and the United States, provides “a supreme opportunity for an act of spiritual creation by evangelists who came to bring, not a sword, but peace.” The aim must be not to make the one prevail over the other, “but in seeking to make the challenge of an encounter yield the response of a new spiritual vision opening up the vista of a new way of life.”17IX/528. The present situation is parallel to the situation in Judea at the time of the conflict between Judaism and the invading Hellenic civilization; as then, so now, salvation lies in evangelism alone.18VIII/623-6. As then, so today, a new vision is required to transcend both parties to the conflict and to unite them on a higher spiritual plane. Evangelism and the new vision stem always from the direct intervention of the Holy Spirit.
With all this, we come back to our starting point: What is the task of man at Zero Hour? What has he to do? We have already heard that he has to repent, to pray, and to be of contrite spirit. The most important duty, however, is to imitate Jesus through the acceptance of suffering.19It seems that at Zero Hour even the four living higher religions which Toynbee recognizes are of no avail. Islam, the Mahayana, and Hinduism are not even mentioned as possible sources of help. In Christian orthodoxy “the body of Christ … had been petrified into a pillar of salt.” (IX/644) The universal churches seem to have reached the end of their journey. Left is the Crucifixion, the example of Jesus in the acceptance of suffering (somewhat anticipated by the “bodhisattva,” see IX/632). Since Toynbee believes that Jesus is identical with the Godhead—see above Chapter I, section 3 and 1/267-9 and notes—the epiphany of the Crucifixion can never be transcended. As always, suffering is the key to salvation. It is in suffering that God reveals Himself to man. We have to work our way “from Trouble to Truth.” Toynbee quotes: “New faiths, like children, must be born in sorrow, and many souls will have to pass through struggles greater than they can bear….” This is the Toynbean testament. Mankind will be saved, if saved it will be, through a new faith, born of the union of human sorrow and “the operation of the Holy Spirit.” Neither can we nor dare we anticipate the nature of the future revelation. Man must cling and suffer and wait patiently for the Lord, trusting in His grace. And so the testament concludes with a quotation from the Jewish Psalms: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.”20Psalms, XLI/9. The rendering of Toynbee’s final position, culled from IX/632, 634-5, 637, 644.