23
November 1623 A.D. Blaise
Pascal’s Conversion
Severance,
Diana. “Blaise Pascal’s
Conversion.” Christianity.com. July
2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1601-1700/blaise-pascals-conversion-11630126.html. Accessed 12 Jun 2014.
Whenever we see a genius who has
many talents--Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, or Benjamin Franklin, for
instance,--we call that person a Renaissance man. Blaise Pascal of France was a
Renaissance man. He was a prominent mathematician, physicist, inventor, and
Christian writer. He made important contributions to geometry, calculus, and
helped develop the theory of probability. Pascal's law is the basis for hydraulic
operations. At l9, he invented the world's first mechanical calculator. The
computer language known as PASCAL was named after him.
Pascal grew up accepting the
Bible as God's word, but in a rather abstract way. He looked into Jansenism, a
Catholic reform movement that emphasized the Augustinian (and Calvinist)
concept of grace. Nonetheless, he lived with a sense of spiritual desperation.
Disgusted with himself he once wrote: "If one does not know himself to be
full of pride, ambition, concupiscence, weakness, pettiness, injustice, one is
very blind. And if, knowing this, a man does not desire to be delivered, what
can one say to him?"
On this day,
November 23, 1654, Pascal's horses bolted and plunged off a bridge.
Pascal was thrown into the roadway. He saw this as a warning directly from God.
That night he experienced a Christian conversion that would cause his
outstanding scientific work to take second place in his pursuits. Light flooded
his room. He recognized Jesus, the Word. For the rest of his life Pascal
carried around a piece of parchment sewn into his coat--a parchment inscribed
with ecstatic phrases:
"God of Abraham, God of
Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars...Joy, joy, joy,
tears of joy...'This is life eternal that they might know you, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.' Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ...May I
not fall from him forever...I will not forget your word. Amen."
From that day forward, Blaise
Pascal realized even more deeply that he must live primarily for God. He
started out by giving much more to the poor.
Pascal closely associated
himself with the Jansenists, a group of Catholics that emphasized morality in
all aspects of life. In 1657 Pascal published his Provincial Letters
which criticized the moral teaching of the Jesuits, the rationalism of
Descartes, and Montaigne's skepticism; and which urged a return to Augustine's
doctrines of grace. Voltaire described the collection as "the first work
of genius to appear in France," (meaning the first such in French
colloquial literature); it continues to be recognized as such.
Pascal also wrote that we come
to know God's truth not only by reason, but even more through the heart by
faith. It is through our heart that we come to know God and to love Him. It is
by faith that we can come to know Christ--and God alone gives us faith.
Bibliography:
2. Bell, Eric Temple. Men of Mathematics. New York, Simon and
Schuster, 1937.
3. Cailliet, John A. The Clue to Pascal. Port Washington,
N.Y.: Kennikat, 1943.
4. Coleman, Robert E. "Blaise Pascal" in Chosen
Vessels: portraits of ten outstanding Christian men; edited by
Charles Turner. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Vine Books, 1985.
5. D'Souza, Dinesh. The Catholic Classics. Huntington,
Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 1986.
6. Pascal, Blaise. Pensées de M. Pascal sur la religion et sur quelques
autres sujets 1670 (The Pensees; many English versions).
7. Pascal, Blaise. Provincial Letters. (Various editions).
8. "Pascal, Blaise." Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
Editor Charles Coulston Gillispie. New York: Scribner's, 1970.
9. "Pascal, Blaise." Edwards, Paul, editor. The
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York, Macmillan, 1967.
10. Rosenberg, Jerry M. The Computer Prophets. London:
Macmillan, 1969.
11. Runes, Dagobert D. A Treasury of Philosophy. New York:
Philosophical Library, 1945.
12. Wolff. Breakthroughs in Physics, p. 130.
Last updated July, 2007.
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