| Author Quoted | Romano Guardini |
| Title Quoted | Pascal for Our Time |
| Date (Year/Month/Day) | 1967/01/22 |
| Imprint | New York : [s.n.]. 1966 |
| Quotation | I have in fact just been reading Romano Guardini's excellent little book on Pascal [Pascal for Our Time]. He analyzes the "demon of combativeness" in Pascal"”a demon which is no prerogative of Jansenists. At times one wonders if a certain combativeness is not endemic in Catholicism: a "compulsion to be always right" and to prove the adversary wrong. A compulsion which easily leads to witch-hunting and which, when turned the wrong way, hunts its witches in the Church herself and finally needs to find them in Rome. There are always human failures which can be exploited for this purpose. Pascal nearly went over the falls completely but he recognized the destructiveness of his own inner demon in time, and knew enough to be silent and to believe. And to love. The story of his death is very moving. |
| Quotation Source | The Road to Joy: Letters to New and Old Friends.; Edited by Robert E. Daggy. / [S.l.] : Flame. 1990, p. 96 |
| Letter to | Circular letter to friends |
| Notes | Circular letter to friends |
| Link to Merton's Copy |
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