CORRESPONDENCE
THE TOYNBEE QUESTION
Sirs:
Encouraged by Mr. R. W. Flint's
letter in the latest issue of P.R., I
must add my voice to his in criticiz–
ing the approach of the editors of P.R.
toward the crisis of our particular
age. In Professor Hook's excellent arti–
cle on Toynbee's historical approach,
he makes as "revealing" a statement
about the liberal approach to salvation
as he finds Toynbee has made on the
Christian approach. "(Toynbee) no–
where comes to grips with the view
that the spiritual crisis of our time,
as of other times, is a consequence
of profound dislocations in economic
and social institutions, and that the
cure of the business cycle will affect
the incidence of neurotic anxieties over
salvation much more decisively than
spiritual therapy will affect the busi–
ness cycle."
This is a very carefully worded sen–
tence and one can hardly disagree
with its central point concerning Toyn–
bee, that saving souls will not neces–
sarily save society. No. Toynbee's at–
tempt to make an other-worldly reli–
gion efficacious in this world's social
salvation is another species of that
"modernism" which Santayana so ef–
fectively demolished in
Winds of Doc–
trine
many years ago. However, Pro–
fessor Hook is accepting the Toynbee
premiss that spiritual and political sal–
vation are akin. He merely differs on
the method of achieving it. This is
exactly the same premiss that is ac–
cepted by Henry Wallace and his
cohorts and leads to the "ideological
partisanship" that Professor Trilling
so justly decries. But, you may say,
our
partisanship is for a peaceful, moderate
socialist change in society which will
allow as many persons as possible a
940
fair
chance
for salvation. Fair enough,
but this is not the burden of the argu–
ments of the writers in your magazine.
The underlying assumption seems to
be, "let's improve society first, then
we can think about salvation." But
John the Baptist pointed out some
time ago, "repent, for the end of the
world is at hand"; what you don't
seem to realize is that the end of the
world is always at hand. Keep striving
for a rational and practical solution
to political difficulties and I'm with
you all the way, but please don't con–
fuse political with spiritual salvation.
Don't even
assume
that the spiritual
is partly dependent on the political
(even though it might be) because if
you do you will begin to forget their
essential distinction and then you will
never be saved.
New York City
C. Roland Wagner
Sirs:
There is nothing particularly offen–
sive about debunking, or even in jump–
ing from The Bandwagon with as
loud a splash as possible; but really,
Mr. Sidney Hook's Toynbee appraisal
in June's PR was sadly silly, the kind
of whine that can pass beneath other
people but which somehow irritates my
small ear. I feel, simply, that anyone
taking on Toynbee and Augustine and
Maritain all alump could .at least have
briefed himself with a mind not
quite
so narrow. Even Mr. Hook's evident
fear of the Catholic Church (and
who can blame him?-its past: "tor–
ture, exploitation, terror and wars of
extermination"; its future for us: "a
confessor in every concentration
camp") should not have damaged
ordinary reasoning that much.
Just "what dogmas of Christianity
are incompatible with free enterprise
or with collectivism?" Mr. Hook in–
quires, to prove the superfluity of
"theological baggage" when searching
