A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Steve West
Table of Contents
1 Blaise Pascal: Known and Unknown
2 A Short Life of Pascal
3 Scientist and Philosopher of Science
4 Theological Controversy
5 The Character and Plan of Pensées
6 God: To Prove or Not to Prove?
7 Skepticism and the Hidden God
8 Deposed Royalty
9 Jesus Christ: Miracle and Prophecy
10 The Excellence of Christ
11 Christianity, Muhammad, and the Jews
12 Wagering a Life on God
13 Pascal’s Critique of Culture and Politics
Conclusion: A Christian Genius for the Ages
Appendix: Descartes and Pascal Get into an Argument in Heaven
Summary
Chapter 1: Blaise Pascal: Known and Unknown
Today, Pascal is best known for his wager argument, and some of his aphorisms are still fairly popular. But he is often misunderstood, and some thinkers ignore him entirely. He was a brilliant polymath who made seminal contributions to a number of fields. Pascal’s famous line, “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing: we know this in countless ways,” must be taken in context with his philosophical and rational projects. He desired to show that Christianity was rational and should be accepted, but he also understood that faith requires heart commitment rather than merely intellectual assent. Pascal was not a systematic philosopher—his fame came from his brilliance in mathematics, science, and inventing—but he did engage in philosophical and theological thinking and polemics. His religious and psychological insights into the human condition are profound, and his writings invite people into further reflection. Pascal’s famed wager argument has led to his premature dismissal in the minds of some, and his brilliant contributions in other areas have been illegitimately undercut because of it. Putting Pascal’s wager argument into his larger thought structures is vital. In approaching Pascal, we need to put off any preconceived caricature, and listen intently to what he actually says.
Chapter 2: A Short Life of Pascal
Born in 1623, Pascal entered a world of intellectual, scientific, and religious revolutions. This era of history has not improperly been termed the Age of Reason. A precocious child prodigy, Pascal excelled at mathematics, and soon gained an enviable reputation for genius. He invented the first adding machine and did groundbreaking work on the existence of vacuums in nature. Jansenism—an Augustinian movement for reform in Catholicism—influenced him greatly, but he was also embedded in the life of court and high society. After his father’s death, Blaise’s sister joined a convent, and Blaise experienced a profound “second conversion.” When he died in 1662, a note was found in his jacket pocket describing an intense religious experience that occurred on November 23, 1654. This note is often described as the “night of fire,” and it records Pascal’s deep experience with God as a living God, and his total surrender to him. God was far more than a theological concept: he was a living God of fire and infinite intensity. After this time, Pascal began to spend more time thinking and writing about religious issues. Having lived in circles of extravagance, he embraced voluntary poverty and helping the poor. Pascal died at the age of 39, having experienced many illnesses and health complications during his short life. . . .
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