Pendle Hill Pamphlet #391947
Christianity and Civilisation
The essay argues that human progress is interrelated with spiritual development. (Reprinted elsewhere, but this edition includes an introduction by the author.)
About the author
Arnold Toynbee delivered the lecture, "Christianity and Civilization," in 1940, and Pendle Hill published that lecture in 1947, while he was at the height of his fame. His multivolume A Study of History reached the bestseller lists in that period, and his name became a household word. By arguing that civilizations control their own fate where rise and fall are concerned, Arnold Toynbee provided inspiration to people working on rebuilding Europe after World War II.
Pendle Hill got an opportunity to reprint one of Arnold Toynbee’s lectures in the middle of this turbulent period because one of his American editors, Albert Fowler, was then a resident at Pendle Hill. Arnold Toynbee’s understanding of the progress of civilizations outlined in A Study of History remains controversial with the debate surrounding Samuel Huntington’s book, The Clash of Civilizations (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996). The theme of Christianity and Civilization continues to excite controversy today.