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Raoul76
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When I was going through my half-serious Jansenist phase, I read a little bit of Pascal. His famous book against the Jesuits known as the Provinciales is on the Index -- instant excommunication if you read it.
Despite that, I read a couple pages of it thinking "Oh, surely this passed into the domain of history by now." I don't know how the Index works or if what was forbidden for the 17th century is still forbidden today. But then I became too frightened to read any more. I hope I'm not excommunicated! Believe it or not, I actually confessed to having read what little I did read.
All I can say is that he has an arrogant, self-satisfied and sarcastic style of writing. The Provinciales is considered a landmark in French prose because it pretty much invented that snotty kind of verbal one-upsmanship, the dry, withering irony, that was later perfected by Voltaire.
It's not a charitable kind of writing that Catholics should emulate, in my opinion. We should move back towards a more dignified, serious and polite style. I see only ego in this attempt to tear others down to build yourself up.
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Please ignore my old posts against NFP and implicit faith. Both are true teachings of the Church!
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| Posted Jun 15, 2010, 4:23 am |
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Laurentius
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I read the entire provincial letters a few years back via the internet on RomanCatholicism.org, and I confess I knew the book to be on the index, however I am reminded that in days when we had Popes it was often the case that certain individuals could receive permission to study heretical writings for a period of time, so it was with the lay Cardinal Gasparo Contrarini and the writings of the heresiarch Luther.
As such I believing that their was no valid Pope could not request permission to read such writings so in the absence of such authority what was I to do.
Now what I remember about the book was that the first couple letters revolved around Antoine Arnaulds impending expulsion from the Sorbonne and the Jesuitical Molinists and the Dominican Thomists agreeing on the term "proximate power" as a hall mark of orthodoxy while no doubt both had a different idea in mind as to what that term meant. The later letters dealt mainly with the teachings of the Jesuit casuists.
That is pretty much all I remember about the book, as to my opinion of Pascal the man I would probably have to reflect on the matter further ... I know that his devotion to Jansenism was no doubt solidified by external factors such as the miracle(?) of the holy thorn which healed his niece from some sort of problem with her eyes and the stiff resistance of his beloved sister Jacqueline to signing the formulary.
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| Posted Jun 15, 2010, 5:23 am |
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Caraffa
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A certain version of Pascal's Pensees are on the Index, but only if they contain the notes of Voltaire. There are some historians and philosophers (Peter Kreeft for one) who allege that Pascal was not a Jansenist, but merely sympathetic. I think that may be true, and that he might have been guilty by association. A similar situation might be found with Johann von Staupitz, whose association with Martin Luther resulted in von Staupitz having several works placed on the Index, yet all Catholic sources that I have seen agree that von Staupitz was no heretic.
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"The dauntless will have to forge ahead alone; in old pagan Rome, the first Christians also had to abstain from participating in the feasts and meetings of their fellow citizens. Perhaps the new paganism can only be vanquished by such sacrifices. Nevertheless: Nolite timere, pusillus grex, quia placuit Patri vestro dare vobis regnum" (Luke 12:32).-The future Cardinal Von Galen, October 1926.
"For Catholics to follow their times is a disgrace, worse than that of a king abdicating his kingship. How can such (liberal) Catholics be taken seriously? Either they will come back to the fullness of their Faith or they will go over to the enemies of the Faith, but they cannot remain suspended in between."- Louis Veuillot
"Instaurare Omnia In Christo."-St. Pius X
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| Posted Jun 20, 2010, 5:15 am |
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Laurentius
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| Caraffa said: | A certain version of Pascal's Pensees are on the Index, but only if they contain the notes of Voltaire. There are some historians and philosophers (Peter Kreeft for one) who allege that Pascal was not a Jansenist, but merely sympathetic. I think that may be true, and that he might have been guilty by association. A similar situation might be found with Johann von Staupitz, whose association with Martin Luther resulted in von Staupitz having several works placed on the Index, yet all Catholic sources that I have seen agree that von Staupitz was no heretic.
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I personally find it hard to believe that Pascal was not a Jansenist, indeed I find it more probable that he was even more committed to Jansenism than many of his coreligionists, for when it came time for the nuns of Port Royal to sign the formulary, Pascal backed the view of his sister Jacqueline Pascal that to sign the formulary amounted to a denial of the doctrine of efficacious grace, rather than the view of other Jansenists that it was ok to sign it so long as a distinction was made between matters of faith and matters of fact, the Pope in their view being infallible only in matters of faith.
So if anything Pascal was more of a Jansenist than say Pierre Nichole.
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| Posted Jun 20, 2010, 6:03 am |
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Caraffa
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| Laurentius said: | | Caraffa said: | A certain version of Pascal's Pensees are on the Index, but only if they contain the notes of Voltaire. There are some historians and philosophers (Peter Kreeft for one) who allege that Pascal was not a Jansenist, but merely sympathetic. I think that may be true, and that he might have been guilty by association. A similar situation might be found with Johann von Staupitz, whose association with Martin Luther resulted in von Staupitz having several works placed on the Index, yet all Catholic sources that I have seen agree that von Staupitz was no heretic.
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I personally find it hard to believe that Pascal was not a Jansenist, indeed I find it more probable that he was even more committed to Jansenism than many of his coreligionists, for when it came time for the nuns of Port Royal to sign the formulary, Pascal backed the view of his sister Jacqueline Pascal that to sign the formulary amounted to a denial of the doctrine of efficacious grace, rather than the view of other Jansenists that it was ok to sign it so long as a distinction was made between matters of faith and matters of fact, the Pope in their view being infallible only in matters of faith.
So if anything Pascal was more of a Jansenist than say Pierre Nichole. |
But Pascal died with a non-Jansenist priest by his side. If he was such a hard-core Jansenist then such would not have been the case.
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"The dauntless will have to forge ahead alone; in old pagan Rome, the first Christians also had to abstain from participating in the feasts and meetings of their fellow citizens. Perhaps the new paganism can only be vanquished by such sacrifices. Nevertheless: Nolite timere, pusillus grex, quia placuit Patri vestro dare vobis regnum" (Luke 12:32).-The future Cardinal Von Galen, October 1926.
"For Catholics to follow their times is a disgrace, worse than that of a king abdicating his kingship. How can such (liberal) Catholics be taken seriously? Either they will come back to the fullness of their Faith or they will go over to the enemies of the Faith, but they cannot remain suspended in between."- Louis Veuillot
"Instaurare Omnia In Christo."-St. Pius X
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| Posted Jun 28, 2010, 11:15 pm |
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