ABSTRACT
The Rousseauistic outlook on life has also persisted, with many surface modifications, to be sure, but without any serious questioning on the part of most men of its underlying assumptions. To debate Rousseau is really to debate the main issues of our contemporary life in literature, politics, education, and, all religion. Humanism and religion in their various forms have at times conflicted, but have more often been in alliance with one another. Religion has suffered not only from the Rousseauist but also from the pseudo-scientist. The warfare of the Rousseauistic crusader has been even less against institutions than against those who control and administer them—kings and priests in the earlier stages of the movement, capitalists in our own day. Rousseauism not only dominates our education but has been eating into the very vitals of the Protestant religion. The humanist is rather distrustful of sudden conversions and pistol-shot transformations of human nature.
