On Toynbee and the Baha'i Faith: A Mystery Afoot

Photo: Amy Kerlin

There is a mystery afoot. The Toynbee Plaques have been showing up in streets in many East Coast cities. They are stirring up interest in Arnold Toybee and the Baha'i Faith. -gw

Arnold Toynbee was an English historian, most notably remembered as being a "religious historian". This should not be confused with being a "historian of religion" or "religion historian" as Toynbee was not apt to merely document the religions of history. Instead, Mr. Toynbee felt that all historical signifigance was based on the major religious movements at any given time or place and, accordingly, he wrote his history based on the revolution and connectivity of religions and major historical events. Toynbee was also a religious man himself, but this is not to say he was a non-secular academic. In fact, Arnold Toynbee was a very secular man. On browsing through a long out-dated book on cults, I came across a section on the new religion of Baha'i. In this section Arnold Toynbee was quoted as having called Baha'i "the next great religion". Baha'i is a religion which believes that all religions are correct religions, but are correct for a specific time and place. The Baha'i faith believes that Christ, Muhommad, and Buddha were all sent by God (God is the same God worshipped by all religions, they believe) and were all preparing different people, at different times, for their introduction to God. The Baha'i faith still exists today, and is still one possible lead to the placement of the plaques, although not a very good one, as I will talk about later, some plaques suggest that an individual is placing the plaques, not an organization.

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John Charles Taylor, "Background Research," http://www.toynbee.net/toynbee.html