Particularity and Apologetics
Particularity and Apologetics
The chapter takes as its major focus the incomplete apologetic project (known as the Pensées) of Blaise Pascal. It gives an account of the text’s difficulties and seeks to establish the nature of its putative readership. It considers the status of the doctrine of the Fall and of original sin as it is presented by Pascal, and examines the dialectical structure with reference to the earlier Entretien avec Monsieur de Saci and to the broader homiletic tradition of the period, with particular reference to Bossuet’s Sermon sur la mort. It shows how Pascal differentiates Christianity from the proofs of natural religion (deism), by his appeal to the hidden God (“Dieu caché”) of Isaiah; and concludes by considering how Pascal’s arguments might be countered.
Keywords: apologetics, Pascal, Pensées, Fall, Entretien, homiletics, Bossuet, sermons, deism, hidden God
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