Book review
Making Sense of It All: Pascal and the Meaning of Life. By Thomas V. Morris. Eerdmans. 214 pp. $12.95 paper.
Pascal, while universally admitted to be a genius, is generally relegated to the pantheon of "minor" philosophers, since most of his life was spent either in mathematical discoveries or in his famous tangle with the lax moral theologians of the Jesuit order. He died before he could assemble the disjecta membra of his famous Pensées into an organized, consistently argued book, and so he is more often known for his aphoristic brilliance than for any coherent philosophy. But coherent it is, and we owe Thomas Morris, Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame, many thanks for this stimulating, witty, and utterly absorbing book on perhaps the greatest apologist for Christianity in modern times. Morris notes the contrast between Pascal and much of philosophy today: "Intellectual activities themselves can be powerfully diverting. Many philosophers and theologians are masters at keeping their distance from spiritual realities." Or, as Pascal says, "Pious scholars are rare." Why? Because "we run heedlessly into the abyss after putting something in front of us to stop us from seeing it."
Edward T. Oakes, S.J.
_________________________________________________
(c) 1997 FirstThings 38 (December 1993): 63-64.
Pascal, while universally admitted to be a genius, is generally relegated to the pantheon of "minor" philosophers, since most of his life was spent either in mathematical discoveries or in his famous tangle with the lax moral theologians of the Jesuit order. He died before he could assemble the disjecta membra of his famous Pensées into an organized, consistently argued book, and so he is more often known for his aphoristic brilliance than for any coherent philosophy. But coherent it is, and we owe Thomas Morris, Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame, many thanks for this stimulating, witty, and utterly absorbing book on perhaps the greatest apologist for Christianity in modern times. Morris notes the contrast between Pascal and much of philosophy today: "Intellectual activities themselves can be powerfully diverting. Many philosophers and theologians are masters at keeping their distance from spiritual realities." Or, as Pascal says, "Pious scholars are rare." Why? Because "we run heedlessly into the abyss after putting something in front of us to stop us from seeing it."
Edward T. Oakes, S.J.
_________________________________________________
(c) 1997 FirstThings 38 (December 1993): 63-64.
posted by Leonardo Bravo at 9:14 AM
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