Man in the Religious Philosophy of Blaise Pascal

Abstract

The aim of the study is to identify the distinctive features of Pascal’s religious and philosophical approach to man. The philosopher considers man in an apologetic way. To give his thought this dimension of the French philosopher was prompted by the era in which he lived and in which the indisputable authority in theology was Thomas Aquinas, a faithful follower of aristotelism. Pascal contrasts Aquinas’ illusory notions of the world harmony supposedly reigning in the surrounding world with the description of the world «lying in evil» and the man «hanging over the abyss». There are existential motives in this description. However, the spiritual turn that took place in the soul of the philosopher, shielded him from the philosophy of existentialism, and the paradox of human existence begins to comprehend Pascal in the Orthodox way. In the same vein, he begins to distinguish philosophy as the love of divine wisdom from philosophy by the elements of the world, and not by Christ (Col. 2, 8). Here the philosopher gives a beautiful description of the human mind in its potential and actual state, as well as the insignificance of man and his greatness, achieved by him in the way of his faithfulness and love for God.