Abstract

Though the influence of the Bible on the Pensees has long been recognized, recent scholars have tended to present a Pascal reduced to a mere mirror of their own theoretical systems: Pascal as Marxist dialectician, Pascal as protean deconstructionist, etc. This study proposes to examine the extraordinary, but critically ignored presence of the Old Testament prophetic books in the work of Pascal. The method of inquiry is distinctly unfashionable, as it considers both the Pascalian texte and hors-texte. This dual method only appears to be contradictory, for it issues from Pascal's own injunction to look at all truths, not a single, isolated truth . Writing, thinking, and living in the prophetic mode, Pascal was himself a prophet. His striking, aggressive style and the rhetorical structure of his work bear striking resemblance to the books of Isaiah and Ezekiel, and his clash with the twin threats of libertine secularism and Jesuit sophistry replays the Old Testament battles pitting the prophet against the priests and kings. A complete catalogue of the prophetic citations used by Pascal in his work also illustrates his clever, highly deliberate and focused intertextuality. This catalogue shows not only that the Prophetic books are the dominant source of Pascal's work, but that he uses them in a way which sometimes directly controverts the message of the New Testament. Pascal's affinity for the prophets is matched only by his contrast with his contemporaries. Yet far from being the father of deconstruction, Pascal revels in contradictions which issue from Isaiah's repeated juxtaposition of the hidden, judgmental God and the present, forgiving God. Repeating this formula, Pascal further complicates it with frequent references to the seeming contradiction of Christ as both God and man. Ultimately Pascal's prophecy itself becomes an expression of contradiction: he is obliged to repeat an apology which will be understood only by those who already believe