Abstract

The dissertation is a close reading of Pascal, Rousseau, and Tocqueville's reflections on theology, politics, and modernity. The chapter on Pascal posits a fissure within Christian thought that opens the possibility of a purely human incarnation within history through the imaginary configuration of text, and the Presentation of Christianity as faith set radically and inflexibly against human activity and attachment in and through the world. Rousseau realizes the possibility of historical incarnation in a distinctive and instructive oeuvre; the ultimate motives and ends of his authorial ambitions, from his early Discourses to his final reveries, are discussed at length. Tocqueville finds himself alienated from faith and Enlightenment, and takes his bearings from history, a history mastered by equality and haunted by the seductive excesses and betrayed promises of revolutionary Enlightenment. The thematic connections between all three authors---as well as the ultimate consequences of the historical journey traced throughout the manuscript---are discussed in the conclusion