Lettres provinciales

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Blaise Pascal - Les Provinciales

The Lettres provinciales (full title: Lettres écrites par Louis de Montalte à un Provincial de ses amis et aux RR Pères Jésuites ) are a collection of 18 letters written by the French philosopher and theologian Blaise Pascal under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte . In the controversy between Jesuits and Jansenists over casuistry , Pascal, who was himself a Jansenist, sided with his friend Antoine Arnauld , who had been condemned as a heretic by the Sorbonne in 1656 . The first letter is dated January 23, 1656 , the eighteenth on March 24, 1657.

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In the letters, Pascal humorously attacked the casuistry method, which was popular among theologians at the time, and lamented the moral decline of the Jesuits. Pascal published the letters under a pseudonym. He pretended to be a young man from Paris telling a friend in the provinces about the moral and theological discussions in the capital. Under this guise, Pascal directed his criticism against contemporary Jesuit theology. He aimed particularly at the theology of the Spanish Jesuit father Antonio Escobar y Mendoza . In his writings (especially the Summula casuum conscientiae of 1627), he developed a casuistic moral theology which - according to the Jansenists - justified sins and moral decay. Pascal attacked these positions with sharp polemics and exposed Jesuit theology to ridicule by openly exposing the internal contradictions.

Impact history

Thanks to Pascal's sharp-talkedness and his brilliant rhetorical style, the letters are among the outstanding literary works of the time. The letters were read and discussed in the literary salons . As far as their anti-clerical thrust is concerned, they are to be counted among the early enlightenment. By order of Louis XIV , the letters were banned in 1660 and burned at the stake . Still, they were translated into several languages ​​and influenced later thinkers such as Voltaire , Rousseau, and Gibbon . They also had a considerable influence on the Jesuit ban in 1773 .

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