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Graham Tomlin

Blaise Pascal – A Thinker for Our Time

Thursday, September 30, 2026, 12:00 PM

Join us on Zoom: https://ubcgfcf.com

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81841910316?pwd=vXX4nPHTNdFObhZPaO6Dfy9Nubsp8o.1

Abstract 

Blaise Pascal was a physicist, a mathematician, an inventor, entrepreneur, philosopher theologian, and polemicist. His famous unfinished apology for the Christian faith – the Pensées – speaks powerfully to the modern world. Positioned between the rationalism of Descartes and the scepticism of Montaigne, he offers a form of Christian faith that speaks to the uncertainties and mysteries of human existence, and in particular, the consciousness of modern humanity within the vastness of the universe. This lecture will explore Pascal’s wisdom for contemporary sensibilities caught between the scientific confidence of modernity and the pessimistic scepticism of late modernity. 

Biography 

The Rt. Rev. Dr. Graham Tomlin is Editor-in-Chief of SeenandUnseen.com, President of St Mellitus College and Chair of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith, and Order. He was Bishop of Kensington from 2015-22 and Director of the Centre for Cultural Witness from 2022-25. He was the founding Dean of St Mellitus College, and before that, Vice Principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, where he taught Historical Theology within the Theology Faculty of Oxford University. He also served as Chaplain of Jesus College Oxford. He is the author and editor of around 20 books, most recently, Blaise Pascal: The Man who Made the Modern World (Hodder, 2025).

Many Thanks to UBC Murrin Fund

The book, Blaise Pascal: the Man Who Made the Modern World, is a captivating, accessible biography and intellectual portrait of the 17th-century French polymath Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). Tomlin, a theologian, former Bishop of Kensington, and Director of the Centre for Cultural Witness, presents Pascal as far more than the originator of the famous “Wager.” In a short life of just 39 years, marked by chronic ill health, Pascal made pioneering contributions across science, mathematics, technology, philosophy, and Christian apologetics. He invented an early mechanical calculator (a precursor to the computer), advanced work in geometry and probability theory, proved the existence of the vacuum, contributed to hydraulics, and even designed an early urban public transport system in Paris.

Tomlin portrays Pascal as navigating extremes—combining medieval piety with Enlightenment scientific zeal, reason with faith, intellect with personal experience—and as a figure who both helped shape modernity and offered one of its earliest and sharpest critiques. He argues that Pascal’s insights remain highly relevant to contemporary debates on science and religion, distraction in an information-saturated age, the search for meaning, and the nature of belief. The biography is lively, conversational, scholarly yet readable, and balanced: it celebrates Pascal’s genius while acknowledging traits such as intellectual pride and combativeness. It has been widely praised by figures including Tom Holland, Rory Stewart, Katherine Rundell, and Alister McGrath for its clarity, depth, and ability to make Pascal’s ideas speak to today’s world.