Humanism built Western Civilisation as we know it today. Its achievements include the liberation of the individual, democracy, universal rights and widespread prosperity and comfort. Its ambassadors are the heroes of modern culture. Those who sought to contain humanism's pride within a frame of higher truth - Luther, Calvin, Poussin, Kiekegaard could barely interrupt its torrential progress. Those who sought to reform humanism's tenets - Marx, Darwin, and Nietzsche were tested by the success of their own prophecies. So runs the approved view it is not shared by John Carroll.
