WITH RESPECT TO THE COMPARISON OF THE WORDS OF AUGUSTINE AND PASCAL
Augustine said: “I believe in order to understand”, while Pascal said, “The heart having reasons that the reason does not understand”. Augustine could be read as saying: “I am believing as a way of understanding” and Pascal could be read as saying: “The heart’s reasoning goes beyond mere abstract, mental searching.”
My point is that if we think of these two, the mind and the heart, as ongoing processes or ways of relating to reality rather than as entities, we can see how the dynamic between them is comparable. Think of the nouns as “gerunds” (verbs that serve as nouns) thus stressing their respective ongoing activity. The engagement involved in seeking to understand, to reason toward a conclusion, is itself a form of believing. Also, in regard to marriage (the coming together of one’s reasoning with the conclusion), it must be preceded by a period of engagement, the commitment involved in the mind’s reasoning process toward a conclusion.
Neither of these thinkers was speaking of the two processes, believing and reasoning, as in any way completed, but rather as on-going. The commitment of the heart as a search for truth is part and parcel of the meaning of the search itself. As Michael Polanyi has so clearly argued, one searches for the truth believing that it is findable. The commitment to the search for truth is itself a sort of belief. Neither Augustine nor Pascal thought of belief in the truth as in any way independent of the search for it.
3 responses to “WITH RESPECT TO THE COMPARISON OF THE WORDS OF AUGUSTINE AND PASCAL”
Thus when I have engaged in theological thinking, I have sought for the conclusions that make sense to me as a human being seeking meaning in life and not just in a rational sense. That position has led me to accept unpopular ideas and reject some traditional theological ideas. Dj
Me, too, David :O) Paz, Jerry
T. Jefferson wrote about his own dispute with heart over head–about a woman. Franklin was purely rational. He said if you’re interested in two comely girls, of course you should take the one who is better off.