Now who are the individuals who are the greatest benefactors of the living generation of mankind? I should say: Confucius and Lao-tse; the Buddha; the Prophets of Israel and Judah; Zoroaster; Jesus; and Muhammad; and Socrates.
Arnold J. Toynbee
The Greatest Benefactors
Topic: Interfaith Pathways
“Now who are the individuals who are the greatest benefactors of the living generation of mankind? I should say: Confucius and Lao-tse; the Buddha; the Prophets of Israel and Judah; Zoroaster; Jesus; and Muhammad; and Socrates.”
Arnold Joseph Toynbee CH (14 April 1889 – 22 October 1975) was a British historian, philosopher of history, research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and the University of London and author of numerous books. Toynbee in the 1918–1950 period was a leading specialist on international affairs.
He is best known for his 12-volume A Study of History (1934–1961). With his prodigious output of papers, articles, speeches and presentations, and numerous books translated into many languages, Toynbee was a widely read and discussed scholar in the 1940s and 1950s.
[From Wikipedia]
Civilization on Trial
Toynbee, Arnold J. Civilization on Trial . Oxford University Press, New York, 1948, p. 156 [Arnold J. Toynbee, Civilization on Trial].
Arnold J. Toynbee
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Huston Smith
Arnold Toynbee asks: “Now who are the individuals who are the greatest benefactors of the living generation of mankind? I should say: Confucius and Lao-tse; the Buddha; the Prophets of Israel and Judah; Zoroaster, Jesus, and Muhammad; and Socrates.” His answer should not surprise, for authentic religion is the clearest opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos enter human life. What then can rival its power to inspire life’s deepest creative centers? Moving outward from there through myth and rite, it provides the symbols that carry history forward, until at length its power is spent and life awaits a new redemption.
–Huston Smith [The World’s Religions (Harper San Francisco, 1991)] p. 9.