This week in Christian history: Congress endorses a Bible; Catholic Church condemns Blaise Pascal letters

Catholic Church condemns Blaise Pascal letters – Sept. 6, 1657

This week marks the anniversary of when Pope Alexander VII issued a decree denouncing a series of letters written by famed scientist and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal.

Pascal, known for his famous “Pascal’s Wager” that argued that there was no downside to believing in God, was a Jansenist, which was a movement within Catholicism that, among other things, supported predestination for salvation.

In the 1650s, Pascal authored a series of provincial letters in defense of the movement and in support of one of its lead theologians, a Catholic priest named Antoine Arnauld.

The pope declared that the works were “prohibited and condemned, under the pains and censures contained in the Council of Trent, and in the index of prohibited books, and other pains and censures which it may please his holiness to ordain.”

“Few books have passed through more editions than the Provincials,” wrote biographer the Rev. Thomas M’Crie in a 19th century work. “The Letters were translated into Latin, during the lifetime of Pascal, by his intimate friend, the learned and indefatigable Nicole, under the assumed name of ‘William Wendrock, a Saltzburg divine.’”

“The Spanish translation, executed by Gratien Cordero of Burgos, was suppressed by order of the Inquisition. But all the efforts made for the suppression of the Provincials only served to promote their popularity; and their enemies found that, if they would silence, they must answer them.”