An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of AssentNewman, John Henry
Religion
An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent
Newman, John Henry
Faith; Theism
Recurring to Pascal’s argument, I observe that, its force depending
upon the assumption that the facts of Christianity are beyond human
nature, therefore, according as the powers of nature are placed at a
high or low standard, that force will be greater or less; and that
standard will vary according to the respective dispositions, opinions,
and experiences, of those to whom the argument is addressed. Thus its
value is a personal question; not as if there were not an objective
truth and Christianity as a whole not supernatural, but that, when we
come to consider where it is that the supernatural presence is found,
there may be fair differences of opinion, both as to the fact and the
proof of what is supernatural. There is a multitude of facts, which,
taken separately, may perhaps be natural, but, found together, must
come from a source above nature; and what these are, and how many are
necessary, will be variously determined. And while every inquirer has
a right to determine the question according to the best exercise of
his judgment, still whether he so determine it for himself, or trust
in part or altogether to the judgment of those who have the best claim
to judge, in either case he is guided by the implicit processes of the
reasoning faculty, not by any manufacture of arguments forcing their
way to an irrefragable conclusion.
5. Pascal writes in another place, “He who doubts, but seeks not
to have his doubts removed, is at once the most criminal and the
most unhappy of mortals. If, together with this, he is tranquil and
self-satisfied, if he be vain of his tranquillity, or makes his state
a topic of mirth and self-gratulation, I have not words to describe so
insane a creature. Truly it is to the honour of religion to have for
its adversaries men so bereft of reason; their opposition, far from
being formidable, bears testimony to its most distinguishing truths;
for the great object of the Christian religion is to establish the
corruption of our nature, and the redemption by Jesus Christ.(15)”
Elsewhere he says of Montaigne, “He involves everything in such
universal, unmingled scepticism, as to doubt of his very doubts. He was
a pure Pyrrhonist. He ridicules all attempts at certainty in anything.
Delighted with exhibiting in his own person the contradictions that
exist in the mind of a free-thinker, it is all one to him whether
he is successful or not in his argument. The virtue he loved was
simple, sociable, gay, sprightly, and playful; to use one of his own
expressions, ‘Ignorance and incuriousness are two charming pillows for
a sound head.’(16)”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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