How Is The Paradoxical Man’s Pursuit Of "Feus Absconditus" Possible?

Blaise Pascal’s Pensées,a collection of fragments and essays in terms of the way it is compiled,could never depart from reminiscences of what kind of man is searching for what kind of God.I believe that the main logic thread of the book is how the paradoxical man’s pursuit of “Deus absconditus”,or the hidden God,is possible.The first chapter discusses why man is a paradoxical existence.Pascal holds that man is both great and wretched,that man is incapable of absolute ignorance and of certain knowledge,and that man’s nature is sharing God’s divinity but,having been corrupted by the original sin,is as miserable as a deposed king.With a pessimistic view of human nature and history,his critique of the weakness of our reason and advocate for the limited reason have promoted the development of speculative reason.Meanwhile,his emphasis on the intuitive mind of the irrational man and revelation of the contradictory nature of the human condition has made him an early forerunner of existentialism.The second chapter expounds on why God is hidden and must be regarded as a wager.He believes in both the infinite existence and non-existence of God;thus,it is meaningless to give a metaphysical proof for the existence of God.He explains the necessity of the wager(a presupposition)in deciding whether or not God exists and contends the wise decision is to wager that God exists based on man’s pursuit of gains and happiness.The wager theory has not only approached the question of God’s existence by introducing the probability theory characterized by uncertainty,and also touched upon Jansenist’ core issue of whether an individual soul could achieve salvation,in addition to bringing new improvements to Saint Augustine’s theology of grace and predestination.The third chapter analyses how the paradoxical man’s pursuit of Deus absconditus is possible.He maintains that it is only through Jesus Christ that the contradiction between God and man can be mediated,and that Jesus is the one mediator between man and God,and also man’s true God.He became the incarnation of the pessimism of Jansenists and a wandering soul of the history of philosophy with his defense of the doctrine of the Trinity.Apart from believing in God’s existence and depending on Jesus for salvation,it is imperative for man to hold the mean and maintain the virtue of love among members of the whole(body)of God in order to overcome the contradictions between man and God,man and the self and between man and man.These dialectical syntheses of how to mediate against the paradoxicality in practice provided in Pascal’s Pensées accords with faith,hope and charity,the three theological virtues of Christianity.Pascal’s thoughts are bound to bring fresh inspirations for efforts by the human society to mediate the contradiction between rationalism and fideism during the historical process and for contemporary efforts to conquer alienation,confront paradoxes,and to live a spiritual life of faith.