Summarize and Compare Gibbon to Toynbee on the End of the Roman Empire.

Arnold Toynbee's article is about the founding of the Christian Church. He believes that the Roman Empire didn't decline because of Christianity because it started to decline before Christ was alive. He believes that the philosophies rising was a consequence of the fall of the empire. The empire had killed itself. He is trying to challenge the thesis Gibbon wrote about this subject. He believes that Christianity bridges the gape left between civilizations. He believes that Christianity did not destroy the roman civilization but helps spread life to others. The Minoan civilization fell even though there wasn't a major religion that lead up to the Roman civilization. The breakdown of civilizations allow for the flourishing of civilizations. He is wondering what would happen if the kingdom of heaven comes to earth in the future. The Church is strong because it has a mass, a pope, and a hierarchy. The large amount of institutions are the reason why the Church has outlasted civilizations. Personality an example of the spirit showing itself in someone life. Spirits seek to interact with others so humans need to be part of a community. Humans will continue to be sinful.

Edward Gibbon's article was about the fall of the Roman empire and its relation to Christianity. He believes that "the story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and, instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long." Corruption weakened the empire and then it was overrun by barbarians. He believed that the problem was that Rome moved its capitol and then had multiple emperors at the same time. When Constantinople was founded this lead to the fall of the Eastern part of the empire. He believes that he fall of the empire is in part due to the rise of Christianity. The Romans had no idea how much danger they were in. After the empire fell it was broken up into smaller kingdoms. He thinks that after the invention of war, art, and religion and commerce, "we may therefore acquiesce in the pleasing conclusion that every age of the world has increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the happiness, the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the human race."

The two article are very different in there views of the fall of Rome. Gibbon believes that Christianity played a part in the fall of the Empire. Gibbon and Toynbee both believe that the empire caused its self to fall. Toynbee thinks that the empire continued to live on in the traditions of Christianity. Rome continued to effect Europe after it fell. Gibbon thinks that the empire just ended. He is not concerned with what Christianity did after that like Toynbee is. They both have different views about the fall of this mighty empire.

Sources:

Arnold Toynbee. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/toynbee.html.

Medieval Sourcebook:Edward Gibbon: General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gibbon-fall.html.




Picture Source:

Jacques-Louis David, Le Serment Des Horaces Detail.jpg. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacques-Louis_David,_Le_Serment_des_Horaces_detail.jpg.