Pensées

This opening subsection consists of Blaise Pascal’s notes on how he plans to order his projected Apology for the Christian Faith. Pascal intends to engage with various skeptical arguments against Christianity in a conversational way, using letters as a literary device. The two main sections of the treatise will deal, respectively, with the “wretchedness of man without God” and the “happiness of man with God” (4), thus showing how Christianity solves the deepest human problems.

Pascal distinguishes faith from rational proof; the latter is a human instrument that may help one to obtain faith, but faith itself is a gift of God. Thus, Pascal’s treatise will propose that, although reason plays its part in the search for truth, faith is ultimately superior to reason. Further, the treatise will convince people to embrace Christianity by depicting it as “attractive” as well as true to life and human nature.

Pascal reflects on human nature and its foibles and the “inconstancy, boredom, anxiety” (6) that characterize the human condition. In particular, human beings are faulted for “vanity,” or acting as if proud and wise and powerful when they are really weak and ignorant and dependent. Moreover, it is part of human nature not to want to face the realities of death, morality, and judgment but instead to put them off through “diversions” like games and amusements.