Pensées

“Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.”

The Pensées were planned as an apology or defense of Christianity. Blaise Pascal aimed to convince worldly-minded people and skeptics of the truth of religion by presenting it as the best answer to life’s questions. Some of the fragments, like this one, may represent Pascal’s notes to himself about the nature of his target audience: people who would like to believe but find mental obstacles in the way.

“Inconstancy, boredom, anxiety.”

These features, for Pascal, are the natural condition of mankind, rooted in the Fall (See: Index of Terms). At the beginning, mankind enjoyed perfect happiness and innocence, but this was spoiled by original sin. As a result, we live in a state of perpetual uncertainty and imperfection, reflecting The Greatness and Misery of Mankind. Pascal will argue that Christianity provides the explanation and solution for this problem.

“Man is nothing but a subject full of natural error that cannot be eradicated except through grace.”

Expanding on the previous quote, Pascal argues that the Fall has so corrupted human nature—including obscuring our ability to see and follow the truth—that only God’s grace can provide illumination and rescue us from our predicament. This position represents a slight shift away from both medieval scholastic teaching and contemporary rationalism regarding the power of reason, and may reflect some influence from Jansenism (See: Background).