Welcome to the Pascal Reading Group!

Pensées

By Blaise Pascal

 

The title is the French word for “thoughts,” pronounced pon-say.

Recently, I’ve had numerous conversations with people who are looking for what Pascal provides: a passionate and persuasive defense of the Christian faith that emerges from a scientific worldview and makes sense to those struggling to make rational sense of Christianity.  For believers, a great growth opportunity that will deepen our sharing of the gospel.  For those yet unconvinced, a worthwhile read of a not-to-be-missed classic.  I’ll be reading Pascal’s Pensées this summer…join me!”
 

Choose your version

There are two radically different ways that Pascal's many "thoughts" are arranged in published books: 

1. In numbered order.  Older versions, E-books and the PDF version available from CCEL (see below) feature the pensees in numerical order, 1-914, organized into 14 sections.
2. Grouped by topic.  The newer published version, including the Penguin Classics (1995) version favored by Dr. Peter Gilbert, follow this pattern.  The numbers of the original pensees are included on the right hand column in parentheses.

I have decided to read the old version on my Kindle.  Others of you may want to follow Peter Gilbert's guide and read the Penguin Classics version.  Because we'll be reading the Pensees in very different orders based on our choice of text, I've decided not to provide a reading schedule with page numbers. 

We'll monitor our reading progress with by percentage.  There are seven weeks, and each week we'll want to cover at least 15% of the book we're reading...that way we'll finish by the end of August.

Here's the schedule:

Each week begins on Thursday, when I'll publish a new post on the blog

July 10-16            15%

July 17-23            30%

July 24-30            45%

July 31-Aug 6      60%

Aug 7-13              75%

Aug 14-20            90%

Aug 21-27           100%

 Here are the links to the free digital versions of the Pensees, also available on Amazon or through the public library:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/pascal/pensees.html
http://www.ccel.org/

 

THINK … and record your thoughts in a journal or on this blog

In a journal, record your own thoughts and reflections as you read.  I'll be posting a weekly thought to respond to in the comments section of this blog...this is how we'll discuss with each other!

When I post the weekly thought/question, I'll focus on one particular pense.

 

CONSULT A TOUR GUIDE … Read Dr. Peter Gilbert’s book

Dr. Peter Gilbert, who was an F3 speaker at North Creek on June 25^th, is the author of the book Pascal’s God-shaped Vacuum: A Guided Tour of The Pensées (2012).  He holds a PhD in Biostatistics and works on developing a preventative AIDS vaccine.  As an agnostic college student, reading Pascal’s writings led him to seek God.  Today he helps others consider Pascal’s defense of the Christian faith.