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Summary in 400 words or less:
Who are we? Worldviews all try to answer this fundamental question of human existence. Man is magnificent and miserable, dignified and undignified, profound and stupid. Some use their minds to mine the universe for mathematical meaning. Others invent instruments of cruelty. Both use their intelligence. What accounts for these astonishing contradictions?
Blaise Pascal argues that Christianity alone explains the greatness and baseness of humanity. Other worldviews either exalt humanity at the expense of its debauchery or humble humanity at the expense of its grandeur. Pascal employs the argument to the best explanation (or abduction) to make his case that human greatness is found in being created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) and that human misery stems from the fall (Genesis 3). We are deposed royalty. Our divine origin places us on a God-given earthly throne. But the fall exiles us to the east of Eden, but we yet bear the divine image. Only Christ himself, the perfect human being and true God, can redeem these deposed kings and queens from their exile.
Scripture for YouVersion: Psalm 8 and 14.
Short audio/video:
Pascal’s Anthropological Argument | Douglas Groothuis
Deposed Royalty | Douglas Groothuis
Three questions (1 fill-in-the-blank, 1 multiple choice, and one discussion question):
References for further reading:
Collaboration notes:
From Appeared to Blogly (Chad McIntosh): The Anthropological Argument. See Douglas Groothuis’s two articles, “Disposed Royalty: Pascal’s Anthropological Argument,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 41/2 (1998); “A Royal Ruin: Pascal’s Argument from Humanity to Christianity.” See also Robert Verlarde, “Greatness and Wretchedness: The Usefulness of Pascal’s Anthropological Argument in Apologetics,” Christian Research Journal 27/2 (2004). William A. Lauinger, Well-Being and Theism: Linking Ethics to God (Continuum, 2012).
Collaborators: Douglas Groothuis
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