MR. TOYNBEE'S CITY OF GOD
tions of the time has already been indicated. Toynbee believes that the
downfall of civilizations provides the great opportunity for a universal
religion to bring salvation to the individual soul. The worse the chastise–
ment, the greater the likelihood of spiritual rebirth. Although he heatedly
denies · the allegations of Gibbon and Frazer that Christianity contrib–
uted to the decay of Roman civic virtues, his own theological approach
to politics, which leaves no room for any great passion except the passion
for spiritual redemption, illustrates the unwitting support piety may
give to brute power as it moves to crush free minds and free institu–
tions. Although he does not say so explicitly, Toynbee has, in effect,
written off Western secular and humanist civilization-a' civilization
which, with all its imperfections, still holds the possibility of rebirths and
renewals of freedom in the only world we will ever know.
Were Toynbee consistent, he would pray for the conversion of the
Alarics, Genserics, and Clovises of our time-Stalin, Tito, and Beria–
since what troubles him most profoundly about them are not their acts
of political commission but of spiritual omission.
If
we can imagine such
a prayer to be answered-and it is not excluded that we may some day
see a confessor in every concentration camp-the existence of a
Pax
Souietica,
based possibly on heretical but certainly not on secular foun–
dations, would save us the trouble of imagining what Tertullian's Hell
would be like on earth. As it is, the extension of Stalin's regime, even
without benefit of clergy, is too great a price to pay either for peace in
this world or the promise of salvation in the next.
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