From the thought of death to the Descent into Hell

This article proposes the foundations of a comparative study between the thought of Blaise Pascal and Orthodox Christianity, drawing on the *Pensées*. Adopting an analytical and theological approach, Jacques-Jude Lépine argues that the proximity between Pascal and Orthodoxy lies not in his strict theological positions, but in his general anthropology. The central idea is that this anthropology is in reality a pneumatology: all of Pascal's analyses of the human condition — diversion, vanity, death — converge toward a radical theocentrism whose paradoxical foundation is the resurrection of Christ. The article establishes a significant resonance between the "thought of death" in Pascal and the Orthodox notion of the "descent into Hell," as expressed in Byzantine liturgy and hesychast spirituality. The main contribution is to show that the spiritual experience underlying the *Pensées* presents a structure analogous to that of Orthodox *theosis*.