Pascal’s Wafer: The Concept of Piety in Blaise Pascal’s Theological Anthropology
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Maximillian J. Whelan
Abstract
The concept of piety occupies a central, if hidden or obscure place in Blaise Pascal’s theological anthropology. As a product of the Fall, the human self is “hateful” and perpetually incapable of fulfilling any sense of duty or purity before God. As the means by which the human self is “annihilated,” piety entails endurance and an embrace of uncertainty. At the same time, however, piety does not exclusively involve self-annihilating acts. There are also different states of piety – what Pascal refers to as the “beginning,” “progress” and “consummation” of piety – that are increasingly “filled” and directed toward a final, heavenly state. There is thus a way in which pious acts and states work in tandem and toward the same end. As I seek to show, piety, for Pascal, is fundamentally a childlike phenomenon – an act and state simultaneously whereby a person, rather than presenting him- or herself before God, is brought into God’s presence.
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to my Master of Theology (ThM) thesis advisor, Dr. Thomas Pfau, Alice Mary Baldwin Distinguished Professor of English at Duke University and Professor of Historical Theology at Duke University Divinity School, for his seminar on Pascal (“Between Misery and Grace: Pascal’s Theological Anthropology”) during the Fall 2023 semester. This seminar kindled in me a deep love and respect for Pascal. Dr. Pfau’s expertise in comparative literature and writing was invaluable in helping me fashion a thesis blueprint, in highlighting key formal and structural elements upon which I could build my work and thought. I am also grateful to Dr. Ronald Rittgers, Professor of the History of Christianity at Duke University Divinity School and the second reader of the thesis, for his careful thoughts, probing comments and clarifying insights. Dr. Rittgers has been a role model for me, showing me that the teacher-student relationship is one of the most enduring of all human bonds. Finally, special thanks to Dr. Shaun Blanchard, Lecturer in Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia, for his guidance and support in the manuscript submission process as well as his generosity in sharing selections from the recently published Jansenism: An International Anthology (Catholic University of America Press, 2024). These selections were integral to illuminating my thought, especially concerning controversial – though nonetheless critical – questions regarding the Jansenist movement and Pascal’s place within it.
© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Religious Women and Liturgy in a Fifteenth-Century Portuguese Codex: Gendering the Reception and Profession Ceremonies in the Dominican Convents
- Memory and the Cloister: Mapping the Architecture of Observant Franciscan Identity in Brescia, 1422–1610
- La Babilonyke Meretrice Romaine: Roots and Character of Guillaume Postel’s Anti-Papalism
- Translating Women’s Silence: Erasmus’ Translation and Paraphrase of 1Corinthians 14:34–35
- Maritime Networks: Priests, Mariners, and Their Landing Places in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England
- “The Precious Gifts of Faith, Repentance, and the Feare of God”: Court Confessions and Emotions in Old and New England Witch Trials (ca. 1560–1692)
- Pascal’s Wafer: The Concept of Piety in Blaise Pascal’s Theological Anthropology
- Dossier: Text, Textile, and Theology 1
- Making the Bible a Fashion Accessory in Seventeenth-Century England: Materiality, Market, and the Present-Tense Protestantism of Embroidered Book Covers
- “And I Shall Give to Thee the Crown of Life”: The Utstein Antependium and the Visual Religious Culture in Early Modern Norway (ca. 1680–1700)
- Les ornements liturgiques des Carmes dans les anciens Pays-Bas du XVIIe siècle: un outil au service de leurs thèses
