A Study Guide for Arnold Toynbee's "A Study of History"

Synopsis

"Toynbee argues that, rather than religion being a by-product of civilization, the whole purpose of a civilization is to provide an opportunity for one of the higher religions (Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam) to emerge. . . . Toynbee uses an analogy of the wheel to explicate his view further. He sees the rising and falling of civilizations like revolutions of a wheel, which ‘carry forward the vehicle which the wheel conveys.’ The vehicle conveyed by Toynbee's wheel is religion. The same image helps Toynbee explain why the higher religions are born during the downward turns of the wheel, in periods of decline. He argues that this is necessary because there is a spiritual law according to which progress comes only through suffering. Low points in secular life may be high points in spiritual history." [A Study Guide for Arnold Toynbee, Kindle Location 117, 318]

RefTags

A Study Guide for Arnold Toynbee

Released

2016

Location

Global

Setting