Civilization on Trial

1. The Historian's Oecumenical View: Beyond National Histories

An intelligible field of historical study is not to be found within any national framework; we must expand our historical horizon to think in terms of an entire civilization.

Broadening perspective. A historian's true task is to transcend narrow national narratives and embrace a holistic view of civilizations. Toynbee, shaped by a classical education, found the Graeco-Roman world a perfect training ground, as its history is complete, manageable in evidence, and inherently universal in outlook. This contrasts sharply with the unfinished, often self-absorbed story of one's own nation.

Lessons from antiquity. Graeco-Roman history offers invaluable perspective because it is "over," allowing us to see it as a whole, unlike our own Western world whose ending is unknown. The surviving evidence, rich in art and philosophy, fosters a sense of proportion, revealing that the works of artists and thinkers outlive the deeds of statesmen. This oecumenical outlook prevents historians from being "hypnotized by the lone and outlandish music of the parochial history of my own country."

Philosophical contemporaneity. The experience of World War I illuminated for Toynbee that Thucydides' world and his own were "philosophically contemporary," sharing similar historical crises despite chronological distance. This led to the realization that all civilizations, across millennia, are essentially parallel and contemporary attempts to transcend primitive human life, making their comparative study crucial for understanding the universe's mystery.

2. Civilizations as Responses to Challenges

An encounter between two personalities in the form of challenge and response: have we not here the flint and steel by whose mutual impact the creative spark is kindled?

Genesis and growth. Civilizations are born and grow through successfully meeting successive challenges. This dynamic process, likened to Goethe's "Prologue in Heaven" where Mephistopheles challenges God, suggests that creation is not effortless but a continuous act of overcoming obstacles. The interaction of "challenge-and-response" explains both the rise and the eventual breakdown of societies.

Breakdown and disintegration. When a civilization fails to meet a challenge, it breaks down and disintegrates. This loss of control leads to a schism between a dominant minority and a recalcitrant proletariat. The process is not smooth but marked by alternating "spasms of rout, rally, and rout," often culminating in a "universal state" (like the Pax Romana) that offers temporary peace but ultimately proves to be a mere respite before final dissolution.

Birth of higher religions. Out of the suffering and chaos of a disintegrating civilization, a "universal church" often emerges from the proletariat. This church, like the Christian Church within the Roman Empire, may then survive the civilization's collapse to become the "chrysalis from which a new civilization eventually emerges." This pattern suggests a deeper, purposeful enterprise at play beyond the mere rise and fall of secular societies.

3. History's Dual Rhythm: Cyclic Civilizations, Linear Religion

If religion is a chariot, it looks as if the wheels on which it mounts towards Heaven may be the periodic downfalls of civilizations on Earth.

Cyclic civilizations. The rise and fall of civilizations often appear to follow a cyclic pattern, a view taken for granted by ancient Greek and Indian thinkers. This repetition, however, is not a sign of inexorable doom but rather a "device of the creative faculty," providing opportunities for "bold and fruitful experiment" and means of "retrieving inevitable failures."

Linear religious progress. In contrast to the cyclic movement of civilizations, the history of religion on Earth appears to be a "single continuous upward line." The breakdowns and disintegrations of civilizations serve as "stepping-stones to higher things on the religious plane," embodying the spiritual law that "learning comes through suffering."

A grander purpose. If civilizations are the "handmaids of religion," their periodic downfalls are not in vain but contribute to a progressive revelation of "always deeper religious insight, and the gift of evermore grace to act on this insight." This perspective suggests that the ultimate goal of human endeavors is not the perpetuation of secular societies, but the spiritual advancement facilitated by their very impermanence.

4. The Western Delusion of "History's End"

The middle-class English in 1897, who thought of themselves as Wellsian rationalists living in a scientific age, took their imaginary miracle for granted. As they saw it, history, for them, was over.

Victorian complacency. Around 1897, the Western middle class, particularly in England, America, and Germany, harbored a "quaint pharisaical notion" that their civilization was immune to the historical misfortunes that befell others. They believed history had "come to an end" with their political and economic triumphs, enjoying a "permanent state of felicity" and gazing at less fortunate peoples with "curiosity, condescension, and a touch of pity, but altogether without apprehension."

Subterranean discontent. This widespread hallucination ignored the deep discontent simmering beneath the surface among subject peoples and underprivileged classes worldwide. From Russian peasants dreaming of land to the industrial working class demanding change, powerful "subterranean movements" were already at work, destined to "tear open again history's insecurely closed book" in 1914.

A rude awakening. The two World Wars shattered this illusion, revealing that the Western middle class was not "well beyond high-water mark" but suffering a "tribulation" akin to what the English industrial working class endured a century earlier. This crisis for the "key-minority" that created the modern world inevitably became a crisis for all mankind, forcing a re-evaluation of the West's place in history.

5. War and Class: Civilization's Self-Inflicted Mortal Wounds

Evils which hitherto have been merely disgraceful and grievous have now become intolerable and lethal, and, therefore, we in this Westernized world in our generation are confronted with a choice of alternatives which the ruling elements in other societies in the past have always been able to shirk—with dire consequences, invariably, for themselves, but not at the extreme price of bringing to an end the history of mankind on this planet.

Congenital diseases. War and Class are "congenital diseases of civilization," present since their emergence 5,000-6,000 years ago. Of the twenty-odd civilizations known, all but our own are dead or dying, invariably due to these twin plagues. Historically, these scourges destroyed individual civilizations but not the species itself, as underlying strata or other societies survived.

Technological amplification. Modern Western technological "know-how" has not abolished these evils but "enormously keyed them up." Class can now "irrevocably disintegrate Society," and War can "annihilate the entire human race" with weapons like the atomic bomb. This unprecedented lethality forces humanity to abolish War and Class now, under pain of definitive self-destruction.

Moral enormity of inequality. While technology has raised the minimum standard of living, it has also transformed economic inequality from an "unavoidable evil into an intolerable injustice." In a society that has discovered the "know-how of Amalthea's cornucopia," the privileged can no longer plead practical necessity for their monopoly of amenities. The demand for social justice, a fundamental human need, remains unmet, creating a profound moral crisis.

6. The West's Unification of the World and its Paradoxical Parochialism

Since A.D. 1500 mankind has been gathered into a single world-wide society. From the dawn of history to about that date, the earthly home of man had been divided into many isolated mansions; since about A.D. 1500, the human race has been brought under one roof.

A revolutionary shift. The oceanic voyages of discovery by West European mariners around A.D. 1500 dramatically transformed the human "lay-out" of the planet, unifying mankind into a single, world-wide society. This marked a shift from the Steppe to the Ocean as the primary medium of global communication, moving the world's center from Central Asia to the Atlantic seaboard.

Western exceptionalism. This unprecedented global unification was achieved by the most "unlikely candidate"—the Franks, who were once considered "ferocious but frustrated infidels living in a remote corner of the world." Yet, despite this monumental achievement, Western minds remain paradoxically "pre-da Gaman" in their historical outlook, clinging to a self-centered view that other civilizations have been forced to abandon.

The coming re-education. Non-Western societies, having experienced the "boisterous impact" of Western civilization, have already re-educated themselves to see Western history as part of their own. The West, however, "slumbers on," still believing itself the unique heir of civilization. Sooner or later, the "repercussions of this collision will assuredly recoil upon the West herself," forcing a "re-orientation" and a realization that its neighbors' past will become a vital part of its own future.

7. Russia's Enduring Byzantine Identity and Resistance to Westernization

For nearly a thousand years past, the Russians have, as he sees it, been members, not of our Western civilization, but of the Byzantine—a sister society, of the same Graeco-Roman parentage as ours, but a distinct and different civilization from our own, nevertheless.

Byzantine roots. Russia's identity is deeply rooted in its Byzantine heritage, a distinct civilization from the West, despite shared Graeco-Roman origins. This heritage instilled in Russians a profound sense of orthodoxy and destiny, viewing themselves as "Holy Russia" and Moscow as "The Third Rome," inheriting the mantle after the fall of Constantinople.

Resistance to the West. Throughout history, Russia has fiercely resisted being "overwhelmed by our Western world." To preserve its independence, it has repeatedly adopted Western technology under duress, from Peter the Great mastering 17th-century military arts to the Bolsheviks catching up with the industrial revolution. This is a "fateful question": can one adopt an alien civilization partially without being drawn into adopting it as a whole?

Marxism as a Western heresy. The present Communist regime, while seemingly a clean break, continues this pattern. Marxism, a Western creed that critiques Western civilization, allowed 20th-century Russians to embrace industrialization while preserving their traditional condemnation of the West. This "providentially convenient gift of the gods" enables Russia to maintain its "inherited attitude towards the West"—that the West is "heretical, corrupt, and decadent."

8. Islam's Diverse Responses to Western Impact

The 'Zealot' is the man who takes refuge from the unknown in the familiar; and when he joins battle with a stranger who practises superior tactics and employs formidable newfangled weapons, and finds himself getting the worst of the encounter, he responds by practising his own traditional art of war with abnormally scrupulous exactitude.

Two paths of reaction. When faced with the overwhelming pressure of Western civilization, Islamic societies have historically adopted two main responses: "Zealotism" and "Herodianism." Zealots, like the Wahhabis, retreat into archaic traditions, resisting foreign influence by clinging to the familiar. Herodians, like Mehmed 'Ali or Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, courageously confront the present by mastering the enemy's own tactics and weapons, even if it means radical self-transformation.

The Herodian dilemma. While Herodianism is more effective for material survival, it is inherently mimetic, not creative, and often leads to the adoption of a "ready-made outfit of Western clothes" rather than genuine spiritual renewal. Furthermore, its benefits are typically limited to a small elite, leaving the majority to swell the ranks of the "cosmopolitan proletariat" of the Westernized world.

Islam's potential contributions. Despite the challenges, Islam possesses principles that could offer "important salutary effects" to this global proletariat. Its "extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims" is a vital moral achievement needed in a world grappling with racial intolerance. Additionally, Islam's stance against alcohol could provide a religious conviction for liberation from its evils in "opened up" tropical regions where Western civilization has created a "social and spiritual void."

9. Christianity: A Stepping-Stone to Deeper Spiritual Insight

The breakdowns and disintegrations of civilizations might be stepping-stones to higher things on the religious plane.

Challenging Gibbon and Frazer. Toynbee refutes the view that Christianity destroyed Graeco-Roman civilization, arguing instead that the civilization had already committed "suicide" from inherent defects before Christianity's rise. He also challenges the notion that saving one's soul is incompatible with social duty, asserting that "seeking God is itself a social act."

Beyond the "chrysalis" theory. While Christianity has historically served as a "chrysalis" bridging the gap between civilizations (e.g., Graeco-Roman to Western), this is not its ultimate function. This "chrysalis" role is primarily observed between second and third-generation civilizations, not universally. Instead, the "successive rises and falls of civilizations may be subsidiary to the growth of religion."

Suffering and revelation. The "law that is proclaimed by Aeschylus in the two words πάθει μάθος—'it is through suffering that learning comes'" applies profoundly to religious progress. The breakdowns of civilizations, from Sumer and Akkad to the Graeco-Roman world, have been "Stations of the Cross" that brought forth "higher religions" and "deeper religious insight," culminating in Christianity. Civilizations, by their downfalls, serve as "stepping-stones to a progressive process of the revelation of always deeper religious insight."

10. Religion as the Ultimate Purpose of History

If civilizations are the handmaids of religion and if the Graeco-Roman civilization served as a good handmaid to Christianity by bringing it to birth before that civilization finally went to pieces, then the civilizations of the third generation may be vain repetitions of the Gentiles.

Civilizations as means, religion as end. The ultimate purpose of history is not the perpetuation of secular civilizations, which may be "vain repetitions," but the progressive spiritual development of mankind. If our Western post-Christian secular civilization is merely a repetition of the Graeco-Roman one, then the "greatest new event in the history of mankind" remains the Crucifixion and its spiritual consequences, not the rise of yet another secular society.

The Church Militant's role. The Christian Church, as an enduring institution, is poised to outlast all secular civilizations and potentially inherit the spiritual legacy of other higher religions and philosophies. While the Church on Earth, the "Church Militant," will always contend with "original sin" and require institutional structures (like the Mass and Hierarchy), it serves as a "province of the Kingdom of God," striving for a higher communion with God.

Inexhaustible spiritual progress. True religious progress lies not in changing human nature itself, but in the "growing fund of illumination and of grace" accumulated and communicated by the Church. This offers an "inexhaustible possibility of progress" for individual souls to achieve closer communion with God through suffering and learning. The paradoxical truth is that by aiming for this higher spiritual goal, the mundane social aims of civilizations will be achieved "very much more successfully."

Last updated: January 15, 2026