Reviews for Provincial Letters Containing an Exposure of the Reasoning and Morals of the Jesuits to Whic...

The average rating for Provincial Letters Containing an Exposure of the Reasoning and Morals of the Jesuits to Whic... based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-11-01 00:00:00 Ardon Manuel We are typically loath to read any work from four or five hundred years ago that is heavily immersed in theological argument, firstly because there are few who could follow a close argument, and secondly, because there are few who would care. The Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, was founded in 1540 as a result of the efforts of St Ignatius of Loyola. Its history has been checkered, with frequent accusations of "casuistry" (i.e., bending the laws of God to make things easier for the powerful). Many of these arguments are summarized by Blaise Pascal in his The Provincial Letters. Pascal's sister was a nun at Port-Royal, which was under fire by the Jesuits were acceding to the "heresies" of Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres. Pascal felt, and rightly so, that the Jesuits had no case: Rather, they felt threatened by the puritanical strain of the Jansenists, because it confused men and women of power and wealth who had been following the softer road to Salvation delineated by such Spanish Jesuits as Antonio Escobar y Mendoza and his numerous followers. The first half of The Provincial Letters is brilliant journalism, consisting of interviews with unnamed Jesuits on various subjects relating to faith and morals. At times it verges on satire, to such an extent that even Voltaire felt it was brilliant. If you read only the first half, it would probably be sufficient. (There I go, sounding like one of Pascal's Jesuits.) The second half, on the other hand, is a bit of a trudge and adds nothing more to what contemporary readers can get out of the book. There is a brilliant scene in Luis Bunuel's film The Milky Way, in which a Jesuit literally crosses swords with a Jansenist. I don't think Pascal would have approved, because one of his arguments against the Jesuits was that they condoned dueling and even murder for certain reasons.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-10-30 00:00:00 Chris Wicecarver As someone for whom the disputes in the book were irrelevant, I have to say that I found Pascal's methods of argument very impressive. It's just hard to believe that the Jesuits could have been as malevolent as portrayed by the author. Even if one has no interest in religious doctrines this book is important as a historical record of what was going on in the Catholic church after the Reformation. The religious issues had religious and political importance. It was a life and death matter if a certain party was condemned as heretical. I don't know if Pascal could have been in danger from the Jesuits but things could have gone bad for him in a big hurry. It doesn't seem to have mattered to the Jesuits that his arguments were stronger than theirs. If they could have pulled the right political levers he might have been condemned by the secular authorities as well. I'll have to look up Jansenism and see if there was a price to pay because they held different views than the established Church. It's Pascal's point that the views of theirs that he presents were orthodox but I think they did differ on some doctrine. In any case it's interesting to read the arguments of someone who argues so well. It was impressive to see that he explicitly defends Galileo against the condemnation of the Church, though I don't know if the Church had reversed its stand on a stationary earth by the time of this work. Pascal was both a man who understood theology very thoroughly and a man of science. I think that is a good combination.