Arabic Edition of Toynbee-Ikeda Dialogue Published
Arabic edition of Choose Life, the dialogue between British historian Arnold J. Toynbee and Daisaku Ikeda
BEIRUT, Lebanon: Arab Scientific Publishers
has published an Arabic translation of Choose Life,
a dialogue between British historian Arnold J. Toynbee and Daisaku Ikeda. This
edition, the 30th language into which the work has now been translated, makes
this dialogue available some 400 million Arabic speakers around the world.
Mr. Ikeda and Dr. Toynbee met and exchanged
views over some 40 hours during 1972 and 1973. It was one of Mr. Ikeda’s first
dialogues with a world thinker and one of the first to be published. At the
conclusion of the dialogue, Dr. Toynbee encouraged Mr. Ikeda to continue to
engage in dialogues with the intellectual leaders of the world, saying that
dialogue is the only means by which to open a viable way for humanity. Mr.
Ikeda has gone on to meet and engage in dialogue with over 1,600 leading
figures around the world.
Meeting between Dr. Toynbee and Mr. Ikeda (London, May 1973)
Choose Life is divided into three parts—Personal and Social Life, Political and International Life, and Philosophical and Religious Life—in which the authors share insights on timeless issues including the role of religion, the environmental crisis, health and welfare, and political systems.
The hope-filled conclusion reached by Dr. Toynbee and Mr. Ikeda is that since human beings gave rise to the complex challenges now confronting humanity, it cannot be beyond the power of human wisdom to transform them.
