February 27, 2014 | Pascal

Barzun

In preparation for a speech, I was running back through some of the influential thinkers of the post-Reformation period who have deeply imprinted our own times. For guidance, I turned to the great man of letters [what a fun way to be known!] Jacques Barzun. Dr. Barzun was a genius and polymath, and his cultural history From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present is the finest history of the modern era ever penned. That he was 93 years old when it was published in the year 2000 just makes it richer

Pascal

Somewhat surprisingly, Barzun chose Blaise Pascal as the supreme representative of the time period I was asked to cover. Pascal is not very popular among modern historians because of Blaise’s intense devotion to Christ. Modern folks love his bright science but they scoff at his brilliant faith. Barzun, the most respected historian of his generation, countered that with a quote so brilliant that I just had to share it with you.

In the conventional judgment, Pascal’s mathematics and scientific work atone for the Christian apologetics. Voltaire’s retrospective attack [summarizes]: “Pascal, you are sick.”…That judgment is at fault. Pascal’s brilliant essay on love shows the necessity of the two aspects of his mind [Christian apologist and scientist].

Pascal sees God’s majesty as so far removed from the earth, and His designs as so incomprehensible, that the mortal man has no connection with Him except through Christ, who was both man and God. And what Pascal sought [and found]…in Christ was love.

His religion is rationally tied to his science…When Pascal wrote in his famous Pensee: “the eternal silence of this infinite space frightens me,” he was thinking…How had all these rotating spheres come to be? Why all this void? And how absurd was that enigma, Man! To repeat: God’s design was inscrutable. Christ was the sole link with Meaning, and Christ’s message was forgiveness and love…His miracles were all humane in purpose, and the miracle and mystery of His existence mediated for man the mystery of the infinite space and silence of creation. – JB

Friend, the world will often say that you are sick when you live out both aspects of your mind – your trust in God and your profession. But both are necessary for us to fulfill our role in our time and make a lasting impact on times to come. I pray that Pascal encourages us to live out who we really are – people exploring, searching, and changing the world because in Jesus all our needs are answered.