Kerk en Theologie - Volume 75, Issue 2, 2024

Important parameters for recognizing a fruitful reception of Pascal’s spiritual heritage in Dutch Protestant theology are an awareness of its urgency of the early modernity, his Augustinism and his Roman-Catholicism. Only in the beginning of the 19th century the genius of Pascal has been discovered. Theologians as different as liberal Protestants, Reveil- and ‘ethicists’ (moderate orthodox) use Pascal as an important source for a vital and relevant representation of Christian faith. Often, this Dutch reception is dependent on a types of French philosophical and theological interpretations.

Blaise Pascal’s ideas can be used as a constructive contributions to current day academic theology on at least three major theme’s. The first is the debate about epistemology and ‘spiritual intelligence’, to justify the place of theology at the (postmodern) university. Pascals will-centered antropology helps to underline the unity of human knowledge which is partly also found in approaches like Michiel Bouman’s. The second theme is the contribution of theology to the broader academic debate. Pascal’s use of ‘mystery’ in relation to the discussion about ‘nature’, has a parallel in ethicist Petruschka Schaafsma’s use of it, who seeks to deepen the understanding of social tensions and the academic debate about these tensions. The third theme is the human self and its role in research as problematized in the work of e.g. Bruno Latour. Pascal already was aware of the problematic position of the (early) modern self.

Blaise Pascal is often depicted as the melancholic misanthrope with his particularly pessimistic view of man. Through his Thoughts, Pascal indeed describes man as a chaotic and contradictory creature, doomed to an insurmountable state of misery. Inspired by his Jansenist background, Pascal interprets the human misère as a consequence of the Fall: due to Adam, humanity is entirely depraved. The only greatness left to man corresponds to the thought of his miserable condition. However, every human hides that thought behind an illusory ego. In this paper, we will delve deeper into Pascals distinction between the ego and the human being. We intend to show that Pascal’s bitter descriptions of man hide a message of equality and relatedness.