Sunday, February 05, 2006

A via media that I can dig on (Pascal's Pensees 526 and 527)!

"The knowledge of God without that of man's misery causes pride. The knowledge of man's misery without that of God causes despair. The knowledge of Jesus Christ constitutes the middle cause, because in him we find both God and our misery."

4 comments:

John Zahl said...

Tim,

I remember Intro to Logic with my favorite professor in college (Joel Richeimer). Once, as an example, he demonstated that Pascal's Wager was (at least, according to the rules of logic) an invalid argument, and he did this using chalk. I've never really thought much of P's Wager since, though Woody Allen has exhausted that little goldmine extensively (Stardust Memories being my favorite example).

Did you know that Pascal's son actually dug up his father's body in the middle of the night, hiding the remains in the basement of a church in Paris? Pretty hard-core! You can still visit that basement today. One day, I will expect nothing less from my own children.

-JZ

Anonymous said...

Eric,

Are you familiar with Luther's theology of the cross? Your post echoes many of the sentiments therein.

If you've never read it, I highly recommend (to everyone) G. Forde's "On Being a Theologian of the Cross."

Anonymous said...

Forde's is the single most life-changing book I have ever read (besides, of course,the obvious). Because I am not a huge brain-trust, it is one I never would have picked up myself, unbidden, but I was privileged to be part of a small group which studied it, and I had the benefit of a lot of mature and deep Christians to help wade through it.
It is truly the sort of thing that, once you "get " some of its big truths, you can never again see things as you did before. I know that is poorly said, but for me, it was a paradigm shift of huge magnitude---

I am ever thankful for having read this book, and every time I hear someone suggest it, I have this vicarious thrill of thinking: "OOOooh, he knows too..."

Mattie said...

Jeff -

So we're all clear, that's not Eric's writing in that post, that's Pope Benedict. And I figure that Ratzi probably has read Forde... :)

Mattie