ABSTRACT
Pascal's theology is one of the fall and the redemption, of perfect knowledge made imperfect, of the incarnational presence of God in Christ, of God-given insight broken down into a network of difficult human epistemologies. Sublime' and 'connaissance'-which have touched upon the hypothesis that 'experience' can be used instructively. Both Pascal's 'certitude' and Longinus's sublime have an enduring force. 'Eternellement en joie pour un jour d'exercice sur la terre', reads Pascal's 'memorial'; 'the memory of it is stubborn and indelible', ordains Longinus of the experience of sublimity. Pascal's writing is seen as 'sublime' inasmuch as, espousing precision and mocking the prolix, it embodies both brevity and cogency and integrates these into pure force. True Christianity, in Pascal, recognizes this longing for what it is, and uses it to counter two very human errors, the first being located in a proud belief in the exclusivity of man's excellence, the second in an idle, inert despair.
