Blaise Pascal

“Readable and expert - a brilliant guide to the life and thought of 17th century Europe's supreme polymath”
Tom Holland, host of ‘The Rest is History’ podcast and author of Dominion

“A richly detailed account of Pascal's life and times, which displays an energetic sympathy for Pascal's startling combination of intellectual precocity and humble faith.”
Rory Stewart, host of ‘The Rest is Politics’ podcast and author of Politics On the Edge

“A beautiful, accessible account of one of the era's most remarkable lives”
Katherine Rundell, author of Super Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne

He lived for just 39 years, yet Blaise Pascal was one of the most remarkable and creative figures of the seventeenth century.

He is known for his famous argument 'the wager', but there's so much more to him than that (and most people misunderstand the argument anyway). Pascal can lay claim not only to have built an early version of the modern computer, done ground-breaking work in mathematics and geometry and virtually invented probability theory, but also to have produced one of the most haunting and effective works of Christian apologetics ever written. He is a major intellectual figure at the beginning of the modern age who blends together in his own person and thinking issues that are critical to our age. Blaise Pascal is therefore a crucial figure: not just in the history of European thought, but in how he can shed light on many contemporary debates.
 
 

Graham Tomlin is the Director of the Centre for Cultural Witness, based in Lambeth Palace, and President of St Mellitus College. He was formerly Bishop of Kensington in London. He taught theology in Oxford University and London for many years. He is the author of numerous books and is a regular speaker both nationally and internationally.