God owes us nothing : a brief remark on Pascal's religion and on the spirit of Jansenism
Leszek Kołakowski (Author)
Leszek Kolakowski reflects on the centuries-long debate in Christianity: how to reconcile the existence of evil in the world with the goodness of an omnipotent God, and how God's omnipotence is compatible with people's responsibility for their own salvation or damnation. He approaches this paradox as both an exercise in theology and in revisionist Christian history based on philosophical analysis. This unorthodox interpretation of the history of modern Christianity will provoke renewed discussion about the historical, intellectual, and cultural importance of neo-Augustinianism. Written with Kolakowski's characteristic wit and irony, God Owes Us Nothing will be required reading for philosophers, religious scholars, theologians, and historians alike
History
x, 238 pages ; 23 cm
9780226450513, 9780226450537, 0226450511, 0226450538
32052036
Part 1. Why Did the Catholic Church condemn the teaching of Saint Augustine?
Does God command impossible things?
Does God compel us to be good?
Although unfree, we are free
Can we reject God?
For whom did Jesus die?
What was wrong with Augustine?
A remark on the antecedents of the quarrel
A note on the Provinciales
How to avail oneself of the Heavenly Bread
How to repent : Saint-Cyran's answer
A note on philosophy
Infants in hell
The Gnostic temptation
Winners and losers. Part 2. Pascal's sad religion
Pascal's heresy
The strategy of conversion
Our death, our body, our self-deception
Spotting God in the lifeless universe
Good reason, bad reason, heart
Gambling for faith : the discontinuity of the universe
Pascal's modernity
A note on politics
Pascal after the Pelagian conquest
Was Pascal an "existential" thinker?
A note on skepticism and Pascal's last word