Blaise Pascal, Pensées de M. Pascal sur la religion et sur quelques autres sujets [Thoughts of Monsieur Pascal on Religion]

Mark Cohen (Hunter College CUNY)

Ed. by Kathrina LaPorta, New York University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.03: French Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century: Classical and Baroque, 1600-1700.
Vol. editors: Heather Kirk (University of Western Ontario), Kathrina LaPorta (New York University), Polly Mangerson (DePaul University), Julia Prest (University of St Andrews), Allison Stedman (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Domains

History/ Philosophy of Religion

Dates

First circulation or publication 1670

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Essays/ Lectures (any)

Resources

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Pascal’s Life and the Composition of the Thoughts

In the pre-Newtonian phase of the Scientific Revolution, Pascal offers a perhaps unique and now impossible case of a thinker who was both a scientific genius and a brilliant Christian writer. He made pioneering advances in mathematics, experiment and technology and can lay claim to founding Christian Existentialism. In his Pensées (Thoughts), Pascal synthesizes his intellectual drives, intimate knowledge of life's fragility, his conflicted attraction to social success and his Christian belief in what was soon considered his greatest masterpiece, first published posthumously in 1670. Composed of over 900 fragments on theological and philosophical topics, the text remains as challenging and immediately comprehensible as it was in

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4574 words

Citation: Cohen, Mark. "Pensées de M. Pascal sur la religion et sur quelques autres sujets". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 November 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=25053, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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