John Carroll (born 1944) is an Australian retired academic sociologist. He is an Emeritus Professor of Sociology at

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora, Victoria, Bundoora. The university was established in 1 ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Writings

John Carroll is the author of ''Puritan, Paranoid, Remissive'' (1977), ''Guilt'' (1983), ''Ego and Soul'' (1998), ''Humanism: The Wreck of Western Culture'' (1993; updated as ''The Wreck of Western culture: Humanism Revisited'', 2004) and ''Intruders In The Bush: The Australian Quest For Identity'' (1992). His Cambridge doctoral dissertation on epistemological anarchistic and anti-rationalist themes in Max Stirner, Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky was published as ''Breakout from the Crystal Palace'' (1974). It was supervised by

George Steiner Francis George Steiner, Fellow of the British Academy#Fellowship, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between ...

. ''Puritan, Paranoid, Remissive'' (1977) echoed and developed upon themes in

Philip Rieff Philip Rieff (December 15, 1922 – July 1, 2006) was an American sociologist and cultural critic, who taught sociology at the University of Pennsylvania from 1961 until 1992, and also, during the 1950s, at the University of Chicago. He was the ...

's ''Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud'' (1966). ''Humanism'' (1993; 2004) is Carroll's most ambitious work. Predicated on the view that Western high culture is in a declining if not nihilistic mode, ''Humanism'' traces this decline to an epistemic tyranny of reason and its subjection of other forms of knowing and understanding being. Carroll's often bleak diagnosis is primarily based on unique readings of canonic theological, philosophical and artistic texts including those by

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

, Calvin,

Holbein Holbein may refer to: *Holbein (surname) *Holbein, Saskatchewan, a small village in Canada *Holbein carpet, a type of Ottoman carpet *Holbein stitch, a type of embroidery stitch * Holbein (crater), a crater on Mercury {{Disambig ...

Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), known mononymously as Donatello (; ), was an Italian Renaissance sculpture, Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sc ...

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a French painter who was a leading painter of the Classicism, classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and ...

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

and

John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), better known as John Ford, was an American film director and producer. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and w ...

. The heart of the book's analysis is highly indebted to

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche became the youngest pro ...

's critique of "Socratic" culture in ''

The Birth of Tragedy ''The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music'' () is an 1872 work of dramatic theory by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It was reissued in 1886 as ''The Birth of Tragedy, Or: Hellenism and Pessimism'' (). The later edition contai ...

''. ''Terror: a Meditation on the Meaning of September 11'' (2004) is an application of many of the themes in the former work. In ''The Western Dreaming'' and ''The Existential Jesus'', Carroll rereads Gospel narratives and the ontology of Christ through a Heideggerian and non-theistic lens. ''Greek Pilgrimage'' is an unabashedly hellenophilic meditation on the nature of ancient Greek aesthetics and culture and what remains of the archaeological sites themselves. ''Land of the Golden Cities,'' on the sources of Australia's current prosperity, was published by Connor Court in 2017. Carroll has published two works which draw on and deepen his prior interests: ''On Guilt'' (2020) and ''The Saviour Syndrome'' (2023). A book of essays about his work, ''Metaphysical Sociology: On the Work of John Carroll'' (edited by Sara James), was published by Routledge in 2018. It includes Carroll's response to the contributions.

Bibliography

Books

* * * ''Sceptical sociology''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1980 * * * ''Shutdown: The failure of economic rationalism and how to rescue Australia'', edited by John Carroll and

Robert Manne Robert Michael Manne (born 31 October 1947) is an Emeritus Professor of Politics and Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. He is a leading Australian public intellectual. Background Robert Manne was born in Mel ...

. Melbourne: Text. 1992. * ''Humanism: The wreck of Western culture''. London: Fontana. 1993. * ''Ego and soul: The modern West in search of meaning''. Pymble, NSW: HarperCollins. 1998. * ''The Western dreaming: The Western world is dying for want of a story''. Pymble, NSW: HarperCollins. 2001. * ''Terror: A meditation on the meaning of September 11''. Carlton North: Scribe. 2002. * ''The wreck of Western culture: Humanism revisited''. Carlton North: Scribe. 2004. (A revised version of ''Humanism: The wreck of Western culture''.) * ''The existential Jesus''. Carlton North: Scribe. 2007. * ''Greek pilgrimage: In search of the foundations of the West''. Carlton North: Scribe. 2007. * ''Land of the golden cities: Australia's exceptional prosperity & the culture that made it''. Redlands Bay, Qld: Connor Court, 2017. * ''On Guilt: The Force Shaping Character, History, and Culture''. London: Routledge, 2020. * ''The Saviour Syndrome: Searching for Hope and Meaning in an Age of Unbelief''. Toronto: Sutherland House, 2023.

References

External links

Official websiteCarroll discussing ''The Saviour Syndrome'' in May 2023
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, John 1944 births Living people Australian non-fiction writers Academic staff of La Trobe University Quadrant (magazine) people Australian sociologists