Return of Toynbee. European Union as universal state, Muslims as internal proletariat

Abstract

This paper argues that some tenets of thought by British historian Arnold Toynbee live on and may be applicable to generate insight into modern social phenomena in Europe. As “civilization” framed as a mode of analysis regains popularity, Toynbee’s insight into some historical processes calls for re-examination. This article claims that a set of Toynbee’s concepts related to “disintegration” of a civilization (“internal proletariat,” “universal state,” “religion as chrysalis”) may be applied to generate an interpretation of religious and demographical processes that take place in Europe. The article first identifies European Union as an “universal state” and some groups within European Muslim community as “internal proletariat.” It then goes on to analyse the logical consequences of Toynbee’s assumption that Christianity and Islam are the carriers (chrysalides) of, respectively, Western and Islamic civilizations. In accordance with Toynbee’s model of civilizational evolution (summarized in the article) there are at least six or seven logically possible outcomes of an ongoing interaction between the Western and Islamic civilizations on the territory of the EU. Both civilizations may succeed in the competition for European souls.