'If we submit everything to reason our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural Blaise Pascal, the precociously brilliant contemporary of Descartes, was a gifted mathematician and physicist, but it is his unfinished apologia for the Christian religion upon which his reputation now rests. The Pensees is a collection of philosophical fragments, notes and essays in which Pascal explores the contradictions of human nature in psychological, social, metaphysical and above all theological terms. Mankind emerges from Pascal s analysis as a wretched and desolate creature within an impersonal universe, but who can be transformed through faith in God s grace. This masterly translation conveys Pascal s disarmingly personal tone and captures all the fire and passion of the original. Also contained in this volume are a comparison between different editions, appendices and a bibliography."
'If we submit everything to reason our religion will be left with nothing mysterious or supernatural Blaise Pascal, the precociously brilliant contemporary of Descartes, was a gifted mathematician and physicist, but it is his unfinished apologia for the Christian religion upon which his reputation now rests. The Pensees is a collection of philosophical fragments, notes and essays in which Pascal explores the contradictions of human nature in psychological, social, metaphysical and above all theological terms. Mankind emerges from Pascal s analysis as a wretched and desolate creature within an impersonal universe, but who can be transformed through faith in God s grace. This masterly translation conveys Pascal s disarmingly personal tone and captures all the fire and passion of the original. Also contained in this volume are a comparison between different editions, appendices and a bibliography."