This shift in philosophy turned the attention of scholars to nature and to human institutions rather than Scripture and metaphysics. This was an intellectual movement known as Humanism (or sometimes Secular Humanism), and the academic curriculum associated with it was (and still is) the Liberal Arts. From this basis arose the pillars of the modern era: science, the free market and constitutional government.

Considering how much these three advances contributed to the improvement of the material conditions of humankind, it’s amazing that the underlying philosophy of liberal humanism that makes them possible remains controversial. Indeed, by the 19th and 20th centuries, the irreversible triumph of the Enlightenment seemed to be ratcheted into place by the march of history, and thoughts of effacing humanist traditions were merely the cracked ravings of shattered autocrats and the retrograde Church.