Pascal on the Human Situation Pt.2

Pascal on the Human the Situation

In order to look at some of the theological reasons as to why God would allow discrepencies and difficulties in the first place Pascal, takes a look at the human composition.  Human’s possessed two polar opposites.  On the one hand they possessed a “supreme dignity” while on the other hand they, “inevitably made themselves ignoble.”  They were “capable of supreme good” while “helplessly prone toward evil.”  So human beings live in “anti-thesis.”   What this means is that humans have a choice as to which way they are going to choose.  And this is where revelation comes in.  Revelation addresses humans as they stand in a “perpetual moment of decision.”  In this way, the gravity of the situation needs to be realized.

 

Pascal on the Value of the Obscurities of Revelation

So how do obscurities in revelation help us?  Well Pascal gives us three reasons.

1. Faith involves both mind and heart.  But the heart is more crucial and determinitive than the mind.  The mind cannot give certainty that the heart longs for.  Besides this, faith is a love relationship and not a “logical relationship with various premises and a conclusion.”   Also, religious propositions are never indisbutable.  Thus, their conclusions will be probable and tentative.  Now, this doesn’t mean that faith is against reason, but rather that there are “reasons of the heart” that the rational mind cannot know.  And so, as people stand in that “perpetual moment of decision” the clarities and obscurities will stir their heart.  Pascal even goes so far as to say that even if we had perfect clarity, which in turn “would help the mind”  it would “harm the will.”  In other words, according to Pascal, we would attempt to ground our relationship with God on a merely rational basis.  The problem with a rational basis for relationship with God is that one does not have to work at it existentially.  We would allow a heartfelt relationship to degenerate into a merely cognitive or head relationship.  This is one reason why God is obscure.  The decision to follow and to sustain such a relationship is more challenging for the heart than for the mind.  Basically, there is enough clarity for those who DESIRE such a relationship, but enough obscurity to make it so that the mind doesn’t become the predominant factor thus, making belief through a heart-felt sustained relationship possible.
2. This relationship of the heart must be able to see itself as totally grouned in God.  In other words, the obscurities are there so one may see their existence as total dependent on God which is an act of humility–that this gift of salvation is solely God’s doing and not ours.  That is, God desires for there to be a heart-felt relationship and one cannot claim, even through intellectual superiority, their ability to approach God.  That is, they would approach God and claim “intellectual achievement.”
3. The last and final reason there are obscurities is because God intends to blind the “reproabate.”  That is, the reprobate who choose not to see God’s light are condemned by the light and blinded by the obscurities insofar as they use these obscurities as an excuse not to believe.  That is, there is enough obscurity to manifest evil hearts which refuse to believe but enough light to condemn them in their unbelief.  For Pascal, the mind was wholly determined by the will.  Which is to say that the mind follows and attempts to justify the decision of the will.   The difference then between the elect and the reprobate is not that the elect think more cogently but in what their regenerate wills allow them to think about openly.  The regenerate consider the obscurities in light of the truth that they love.  Not the other way around.  The reprobate, on the other hand, doesn’t love and seek God’s truth but wants to avoid it such that their minds, prejudiced by their wills, seek to avoid it.  In other words, the obscurities are there to ensure that those who love it and seek it will be able to recognize it.  Revelation will be rational enough so that those who love God and truth will not be irrational for doing so and those who do not will to do so will be judged for doing so. 

I hope to finish this tomorrow with what the implications are for an evangelical view on the Bible.