My mother handed me this book--I thought "Oh no another school book." When I started I discovered how incredible a 17th century mathematician can be.This book is especially good if you try to work out the mathematical equations it contains.This is a very good book.Though it would not make much sense to people younger than 13.READ THIS BOOK. I am going to read it again.

This series of letters by Blaise Pascal has it all; humor, a good guy (Pascal) and bad guys (Jesuits), and a moral.

Pascal wrote these letters in defense of his Jansenist friends who were being branded as heretics by the Jesuits. At the time, the Jesuits were a powerful religious order who basically taught Christianity all over the world.

In the Provincial Letters, Pascal exposes and ridicules the doctrines of the Jesuits, especially the "doctrine of probable opinions". The Jesuits (supposedly) were attempting to update the Christian doctrine to satisfy the lax morals of the modern world. In an attempt to "widen the pipe" to heaven, the Jesuits developed "modern" church doctrine (while ignoring traditional church doctrine, and the scriptures) to compensate for societies lax morals.

Pascal, defender of the faith, effectively ridicules their doctrines and shows their errors.

A word of caution, the letters are difficult going with respect to discussions on the finer theological points of view (how far we have fallen regarding knowledge of our faith). A good introduction will orient the reader to the conflicts and provide information regarding many of the theological discussions (the edition I used did not have an introduction; this one may). However, Pascal's writing is so humorous and engaging that I continued reading even when I was lost in the argument.

I am on record (in another review) as stating that religion should be updated to reflect our modern view of the world. However, these letters point out the danger of attempting to do that. I need to reconsider that approach.

People should not be allowed to graduate high school without having first read this book and written a comprehensive essay on it. 'Pensees' is much more than an apology for the Christian faith, it is an investigation into and search for levels of temperance in all areas of human endeavor. Pascal's seemingly simple yet ultra-deep ruminations about life and mind will forever immunize any diligent reader against the tragedy of superficial thinking and instill the comedy of balanced comprehensiveness.

The mention of Pascal's Pensees and the profound effect it clearly had on his life,as an athiest and a scientist staggered me. I talk of one Dr. Takashi Nagai and the book he wrote,originally in Japanese, The Bells of Nagasaki. Anyway,a friend of mine gave me a copy of another book about Nagai's life which draws on the doctors experiences and accounts from Bells, by author Paul Glynn called A song for Nagasaki-which on numerous occasions talks of Pensees. We have all heard that Christianity and science don't,can't and shouldn't mix and yet here is Pascal doing just the opposite,offering coherent proofs and even attacking the stance of those who say never the twain in a singularly undogmatic and poignant style. I am a believer in Jesus Christ but had always been a grovelling well-it-can't-be-helped,-this-is-the-way-I-was-brought-up type of Christian until I laid hold of a copy of Pensees. The boulders were rolled away from my eyes and I have since seen the world and everything in it in a different light. The Lord uses Blaise Pascal even 300 years after his death in bringing his supreme intellectual powers to bear on citizens of the material world to show them a deeper and startlingly more beautiful one right at their very feet! To continue in ultimately vain metaphysical banter about the ins and outs of this and that point of philosophy I believe is ,in a word castrating the aim of this masterpiece of literature and the goal of Pascal-to introduce simple folk like us into a relationship with the living God. The book Pensees changed me and also helped to shed light on areas in the Bible which I hadn't been able to get my head around. So,all in all this is a MUST HAVE for anyone curious about life and the reasons for it. You will not be disappointed.

I always thought of Pascal as a great scientist, but as a somewhat dated Christian apologist. The general treatment of Pascal by both science and humanities is at best an unreflective nod to the importance of his scientific discoveries and a momentary and uncomfortable glance at his `other' writings.

The lack of serious consideration given to Pascal's `other' writings by philosophy and theology departments and their absence from science curriculums is indicative of major bias and ignorance. Why?

Pascal's science is embarassing to defenders of prevalent Darwinian atheistic science because of his zeal for the Christian faith. Pascal made some important discoveries but he "abandoned science for religion" and for that reason is tagged as an historical anachronism - he like many of the scientists of the 17th century were heavily tainted with `folk belief' and superstitions.

Pascal's Science and Faith is embarassing to those philosophers and theologians that cannot reconcile the two aspects of human Pensees - thoughts. They like to think of Pascal as an early `existentialist' like Kierkegaard who made a `leap' of faith against the atheistic dogmas of material science; but Pascal did not support their radical dichotomy of science versus faith.

Shunned on both sides for different reasons (for centuries!), Pascal is finally becoming more and more appreciated as someone who was `between' faith and science; a position becoming more fashionable.

All you have to do is read `The Pensees' to quickly see it as one of the most important, beautiful and penetrating books ever written. The Pensees (`Thoughts') are a long series of fragments on the the human situation, Jesus Christ, God, revelation, Infinity and finitude. But it is the little pieces that you find, like lost treasures, that ring through to your very being that sets Pascal's Pensees apart as a book for living and reflecting and not merely analyzing.

"We sail over a vast expanse, ever uncertain, ever adrift, carried to and fro. To whatever point we think to fix and fasten ourselves it shifts and leaves us; and if we pursue it it escapes our grasp, slips away, fleeing in eternal flight - Man's condition: inconstancy, ennui, unrest."

"The last step that Reason takes is to recognize that there is an infinity of things that lie beyond it. Reason is a poor thing indeed if it does not succed in knowing that."

This massive volume is a must-use for anyone studying recurring ideas throughout Pascal's Pensees. Because of the fragmentary nature of the Pensees, without a concordance of this nature such work would be much less fruitful. A working knowledge of the French language is necessary, as the concordance is for the original language. Each entry is quoted in context, although in a somewhat difficult-to-read font. Numbers listed are from the Brunschvicg edition. The work also includes word counts in frequency order, a helpful tool in identifying important concepts within this important religious work by the enigmatic and influential 17th century writer.

Make no mistake: this is *not* a book about Pascal the man, nor even a book about Pascal the (ascetic) Christian, but an excruciatingly painful book about the minutiae of Pasal's historical milieu and a long-winded discussion of the Jesuit/Jansenist dispute. I found the writing awkward in the extreme, with topical areas abstruse and singularly irrelevant to learning anything particularly useful about Pascal's life. (Well, given Pascal's later penchant for asceticism and renunciation of all pleasures--like enjoying steak dinners, the company of friends, or exercising his intellectual curiosity by inventing probability theory--at least that style was rhetorically appropriate!) Most of what *was" useful here can easily be found elsewhere. For example, when the converted Pascal visited his secular friends, he used to wear a belt studded with pins or nails on the inside so they poked him painfully in the waist, lest he enjoy their company too much. This fact I discovered in Guinness' introductory essay to Houston's "Mind on Fire" and *not* in the present book. In fact, I learned more about Pascal there and from on-line biographies that from this piece of work. Mind you, one should not expect to learn this from a Christian writer and a Christian publishing house, but Pascal's natal astrology chart clearly illustrates the problems and paradoxes that he faced in life: Venus in Cancer squaring the Moon's Nodes and opposing Mars in Capricorn, with healing Chiron in Taurus, and a Stellium (Jupiter conjunct Saturn conjunct Uranus) in Leo. No wonder Pascal felt so torn by fame-and-fortune seeking of his keen mind, yet was irresistibly drawn to a fiery fundamentalism and an ascetic life-style! But all Mr. O'Connell can do is muster up a bit of pity for poor Blaise's "restless heart [that] never quite purged itself of a lust for fame and worldly success [6]." Overall, the book did virtually nothing to illuminate the quote that inspired the title: "The heart has its reasons, of which Reason knows nothing," which was my reason for reading the book. Nor does it adequately explain other paradoxes: How could a genius like Pascal, fundamentalist or not, turn in a friend to the religious police for being a heretic? Why he was so bonded to his sister and why, with Cancer so prominent in his chart, did he never marry? Why his extremist embrace of original sin and human depravity? The book may have value or even be a big hit among believing Christians. But for a pagan neo-Vedantist yogi like me, this book shed absolutely no light at all on how a genius like Pascal wrestled with Ego to reconcile himself to Abstinence or (to paraphrase Kant) how he denied Reason in order to affirm Spirit. I'll have to find those reasons elsewhere....

Bluejay54 You Had Me interested at the beginning with your comments. You sounded reasonably intelligent until I came to your comment:

Mind you, one should not expect to learn this from a Christian writer and a Christian publishing house, but Pascal's natal astrology chart clearly illustrates the problems and paradoxes that he faced in life: Venus in Cancer squaring the Moon's Nodes and opposing Mars in Capricorn, with healing Chiron in Taurus, and a Stellium (Jupiter conjunct Saturn conjunct Uranus) in Leo. No wonder Pascal felt so torn by fame-and-fortune seeking of his keen mind, yet was irresistibly drawn to a fiery fundamentalism and an ascetic life-style!

Christianity, Pascal--NO God Himself--can't be Viewed, Explained, argued Logically, or Intelligently from "ASTROLOGICAL" Premises.

I did however find your comments, amusing, and commical.

I found this biography of Pascal enjoyable and very good for context and analysis. It is difficult to understand Pascal without a good grasp of the religious controversies at this time troubling Paris and the spiritual persons to whom Pascal felt close. For that reason, you may feel a little bogged down at first by explanations of theological and historical matters seemingly unrelated to the man. Bear with the author, because you will need to know these things in order to fully appreciate the passion and bravery (not to mention the substance) of Pascal's latter writings. There is excellent analysis here of Pascal's "Night of Fire" -- the 2nd, dramatic conversion to an intense fervor of Christianity -- as well as of his apologetic _Pensees_. The discussion of the _Pensees_ is just a taste, and after reading this book you will want to obtain a copy. There is so much more to Pascal than this book has room to tell, but it is a good general introduction, serious and somewhat scholarly, but reliable and not recklessly speculative. The picture that emerges is of a first-rate intellect deeply and emotionally touched, changed by an encounter with God.