Self-Annihilation Before God
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

True religion is described as the total annihilation of the self before God and the recognition that communion with the Divine is impossible without a mediator.

...er had been killed before I had life. I am not then a necessary being. In the same way I am not eternal or infinite; but I see plainly that there exists in nature a necessary Being, eternal and infinite. 470 "Had I seen a miracle," say men, "I should become converted." How can they be sure they would do a thing of the nature of which they are ignorant? They imagine that this conversion consists in a worship of God which is like commerce, and in a communion such as they picture to themselves.
True religion consists in annihilating self before that Universal Being, whom we have so often provoked, and who can justly destroy us at any time; in recognising that we can do nothing without Him, and have deserved nothing from Him but His displeasure. It consists in knowing that there is an unconquerable opposition between us and God, and that without a mediator there can be no communion with Him.
471 It is unjust that men should attach themselves to me, even though they do it with pleasure and voluntarily. I should deceive those in whom I had created this desire; for I am not the end of any, and I have not the wherewithal to satisfy them. Am I not about to die? And thus the object of their attachment will die. Therefore, as I would be blamable in causing a falsehood to be believed, though I should employ gentle persuasion, though it should be believed with pleasure, and though it sho...
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Miracles as Proof
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

The author argues that miracles serve as a divine test and a support for religion, acting as a decisive indicator of truth when there is no obvious schism to signal error.

...He speak of the evidence of the prophecies? No; His death had not fulfilled them. But He says, Si non fecissem.[357] Believe the works. Two supernatural foundations of our wholly supernatural religion; one visible, the other invisible; miracles with grace, miracles without grace. The synagogue, which had been treated with love as a type of the Church, and with hatred, because it was only the type, has been restored, being on the point of falling when it was well with God, and thus a type.
Miracles prove the power which God has over hearts, by that which He exercises over bodies. The Church has never approved a miracle among heretics. Miracles a support of religion: they have been the test of Jews; they have been the test of Christians, saints, innocents, and true believers. A miracle among schismatics is not so much to be feared; for schism, which is more obvious than a miracle, visibly indicates their error. But when there is no schism, and error is in question, miracle decides.
Si non fecissem quæ alius non fecit. The wretches who have obliged us to speak of miracles. Abraham and Gideon confirm faith by miracles. Judith. God speaks at last in their greatest oppression. If the cooling of love leaves the Church almost without believers, miracles will rouse them. This is one of the last effects of grace. If one miracle were wrought among the Jesuits! When a miracle disappoints the expectation of those in whose presence it happens, and there is a disproportion bet...
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Seek Reconciling Meaning
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

A prescription for interpreting Scripture by seeking a unifying meaning that reconciles all contradictions, which the author finds exclusively in the person of Jesus Christ.

...a good character by reconciling all contrary qualities, and it is not enough to keep up a series of harmonious qualities, without reconciling contradictory ones. To understand the meaning of an author, we must make all the contrary passages agree. Thus, to understand Scripture, we must have a meaning in which all the contrary passages are reconciled. It is not enough to have one which suits many concurring passages; but it is necessary to have one which reconciles even contradictory passages.
Every author has a meaning in which all the contradictory passages agree, or he has no meaning at all. We cannot affirm the latter of Scripture and the prophets; they undoubtedly are full of good sense. We must then seek for a meaning which reconciles all discrepancies. The true meaning then is not that of the Jews; but in Jesus Christ all the contradictions are reconciled.
The Jews could not reconcile the cessation of the royalty and principality, foretold by Hosea, with the prophecy of Jacob. If we take the law, the sacrifices, and the kingdom as realities, we cannot reconcile all the passages. They must then necessarily be only types. We cannot even reconcile the passages of the same author, nor of the same book, nor sometimes of the same chapter, which indicates copiously what was the meaning of the author. As when Ezekiel, chap, xx, says that man will not l...
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Truth's Visible Church
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

Pascal suggests that truth is preserved through the continuity of a visible Church, where a balance of clarity and obscurity allows the persistent truth to be recognized over time.

.... Whereas the Jesuits, though unable to doubt that the miracles of Port-Royal are of God, do not cease to doubt still the innocence of that house. 854 I suppose that men believe miracles. You corrupt religion either in favour of your friends, or against your enemies. You arrange it at your will. 855 On the miracle.--As God has made no family more happy, let it also be the case that He find none more thankful. SECTION XIV APPENDIX: POLEMICAL FRAGMENTS 856 Clearness, obscurity.--
There would be too great darkness, if truth had not visible signs. This is a wonderful one, that it has always been preserved in one Church and one visible assembly [of men]. There would be too great clearness, if there were only one opinion in this Church. But in order to recognise what is true, one has only to look at what has always existed; for it is certain that truth has always existed, and that nothing false has always existed.
857 The history of the Church ought properly to be called the history of truth. 858 There is a pleasure in being in a ship beaten about by a storm, when we are sure that it will not founder. The persecutions which harass the Church are of this nature. 859 In addition to so many other signs of piety, they[359] are also persecuted, which is the best sign of piety. 860 The Church is in an excellent state, when it is sustained by God only. 861 The Church has always been attacked by o...
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Obedience Without Understanding
Blaise Pascal
Pensees

Pascal distinguishes between slavish obedience to rules and a true understanding of Christ's intentions, warning against defeating the ultimate object of faith.

...sters, we do not correct it. Our mind is assured by a proof of falsehood; our purse is not made secure by proof of injustice. 893 Those who love the Church lament to see the corruption of morals; but laws at least exist. But these corrupt the laws. The model is damaged. 894 Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. 895 It is in vain that the Church has established these words, anathemas, heresies, etc. They are used against her. 896
The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth, for the master tells him only the act and not the intention. And this is why he often obeys slavishly, and defeats the intention. But Jesus Christ has told us the object. And you defeat that object.
897 They cannot have perpetuity, and they seek universality; and therefore they make the whole Church corrupt, that they may be saints. 898 Against those who misuse passages of Scripture, and who pride themselves in finding one which seems to favour their error.--The chapter for Vespers, Passion Sunday, the prayer for the king. Explanation of these words: "He that is not with me is against me."[369] And of these others: "He that is not against you is for you."[370] A person who says: "...
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