The God of the Philosophers is the God of the Patriarchs
There is something not quite right about Pascal’s formulation—moving though it is.
“FIRE. GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob, not of the philosophers and of the learned. Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace. GOD of Jesus Christ.”
These are the opening words of Blaise Pascal’s Memorial, an account of an intense spiritual experience that he believed he had, on the night of 23 November 1654.
He wrote the text down and sewed it into his coat, and is believed to have carried it with him for the rest of his life. It was discovered there by a servant after his death.
The text expresses a spiritual encounter between a man and the one true God who makes himself known to mankind.
In this Editors’ Updates, we’ll be looking at how the ideas in this text can help us live in this current crisis in the Church – as well as this text’s shortcomings.