{"id":6118,"date":"2020-06-29T11:58:57","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T19:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=6118"},"modified":"2020-06-29T12:02:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T20:02:00","slug":"christianity-for-modern-pagans-wretchedness-and-the-paradox-of-greatness-and-wretchedness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2020\/06\/29\/christianity-for-modern-pagans-wretchedness-and-the-paradox-of-greatness-and-wretchedness","title":{"rendered":"Christianity For Modern Pagans: Wretchedness and The Paradox of Greatness and Wretchedness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through an anno\u00adtat\u00aded trans\u00adla\u00adtion of Pascal\u2019s Pensees called Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty For Mod\u00adern Pagans<\/a>, I\u2019ll post the thoughts I\u2019m email\u00ading the stu\u00addents here (which will large\u00adly con\u00adsist of excerpts I found insight\u00adful). They are all tagged sum\u00admer-read\u00ading-project-2020<\/a>. The read\u00ading sched\u00adule is online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This read\u00ading includes the line from Pas\u00adcal that has shaped my thought more than any oth\u00ader of his, \u201cThere is enough light for those who desire only to see, and enough dark\u00adness for those of a con\u00adtrary dis\u00adpo\u00adsi\u00adtion\u201d (Pas\u00adcal, Pensee 149, page 69). It\u2019s sim\u00adple obser\u00adva\u00adtion that explains some\u00adthing we observe every day at Stan\u00adford: the coex\u00adis\u00adtence of smart peo\u00adple who think God\u2019s exis\u00adtence is blind\u00ading\u00adly obvi\u00adous along\u00adside smart peo\u00adple who think that God\u2019s nonex\u00adis\u00adtence is blind\u00ading\u00adly obvi\u00adous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think about this obser\u00adva\u00adtion fre\u00adquent\u00adly, and I have come to believe that such exquis\u00adite bal\u00adance is itself evi\u00addence of a mas\u00adter plan\u00adner at work behind the scenes. If a flipped coin land\u00aded on its edge once, we would be astound\u00aded. If it land\u00aded on its edge repeat\u00aded\u00adly, we would be sure that the coin was rigged. Pas\u00adcal\u2019s point is that real\u00adi\u00adty is rigged in such a way that strong cas\u00ades can be made for faith and for doubt. Pay atten\u00adtion the next time there is a sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant sci\u00aden\u00adtif\u00adic dis\u00adcov\u00adery in an area you might expect to clar\u00adi\u00adfy the exis\u00adtence of God, you will see that the\u00adists and athe\u00adists alike rejoice in the dis\u00adcov\u00adery and write about it with great glee. The coin will have land\u00aded on its edge once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would God arrange real\u00adi\u00adty this way? To reveal our heart. As Pas\u00adcal said ear\u00adli\u00ader in the same Pensee:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018If he had wished to over\u00adcome the obsti\u00adna\u00adcy of the most hard\u00adened, he could have done so by reveal\u00ading him\u00adself to them so plain\u00adly that they could not doubt the truth of his essence, as he will appear on the last day with such thun\u00adder and light\u00adning and such con\u00advul\u00adsions of nature that the dead will rise up and the blind\u00adest will see him. This is not the way he wished to appear when he came in mild\u00adness, because so many men had shown them\u00adselves unwor\u00adthy of his clemen\u00adcy, that he wished to deprive them of the good they did not desire. It was there\u00adfore not right that he should appear in a man\u00adner man\u00adi\u00adfest\u00adly divine and absolute\u00adly capa\u00adble of con\u00advinc\u00ading all men, but nei\u00adther was it right that his com\u00ading should be so hid\u00adden that he could not be rec\u00adog\u00adnized by those who sin\u00adcere\u00adly sought him.<\/p>Pas\u00adcal, Pensee 149, page 68<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As I heard a pas\u00adtor say once, \u201cYou get what you want in eter\u00adni\u00adty. Do you want God? You go to Heav\u00aden where He dwells. Do you not want God? You will be free of Him for\u00adev\u00ader and will go to Hell where He is not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oth\u00ader sec\u00adtions that stuck with me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is instruc\u00adtive to com\u00adpare Job and Eccle\u00adsi\u00adastes. For this is the com\u00adpar\u00adi\u00adson between ancient and mod\u00adern man. Eccle\u00adsi\u00adastes, like mod\u00adern man, has every\u00adthing and yet has noth\u00ading because it is only \u201cvan\u00adi\u00adty\u201d. Job, like ancient man, has noth\u00ading but has every\u00adthing because he has God.<\/p>Kreeft\u2019s com\u00admen\u00adtary on Pensee 403, page 49<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The two most life-chang\u00ading rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtions in mod\u00adern times were the sci\u00aden\u00adtif\u00adic-indus\u00adtri\u00adal rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion, which taught man to live and think abstract\u00adly, like an angel; and the sex\u00adu\u00adal rev\u00ado\u00adlu\u00adtion, which taught man to live and think like an ani\u00admal. The first knows only the head, the sec\u00adond knows only the hor\u00admones. Nei\u00adther knows the heart.<\/p>Kreeft\u2019s com\u00admen\u00adtary on Pensees 678 & 121, page 53<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Man\u2019s great\u00adness is so obvi\u00adous that it can even be deduced from his wretched\u00adness, for what is nature in ani\u00admals we call wretched\u00adness in man, thus rec\u00adog\u00adniz\u00ading that, if his nature is today like that of the ani\u00admals, he must have fall\u00aden from some bet\u00adter state which was once his own\u2026. Who would think him\u00adself unhap\u00adpy if he had only one mouth and who would not if he had only one eye? It has prob\u00ada\u00adbly nev\u00ader occurred to any\u00adone to be dis\u00adtressed at not hav\u00ading three eyes, but those who have none are incon\u00adsolable.<\/p>Pas\u00adcal, Pensee 117, page 59<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My favorite of Pas\u00adcal\u2019s thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Thoughts on my favorite thought from Pascal: \"There is enough light for those who desire only to see, and enough darkness for those of a contrary disposition.\"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[124,284,283,282],"class_list":["post-6118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-apologetically-interesting","tag-kreeft","tag-pascal","tag-summer-reading-project-2020"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1AG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6118"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6124,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6118\/revisions\/6124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}