Making Sense of it all by Thomas V. Morris - Book Report/Review Example

Making Sense of it all by Thomas V. Morris Human life is an attempt to unearth basic questions related to the existence of the same. But it is not so easy to find out an answer which is acceptable and applicable to all situations. The work- ‘Making sense of it all’ by Thomas V. Morris published in 1992 deals with the subject matter of different aspect and areas related to the complexity of human life. The title itself, i.e., ‘Making sense of it all’ makes clear that the attempt of the author is to provide sense to all walks of human life by addressing basic life questions. The book aims to find out a convincing answer on the scope of religion and related questions in one’s life. Thesis statement: Does the work’ Making sense of it all’ by Thomas V. Morris about meaning of life, religion and related issues prove suitable piece of writing for the audience. Summary The thought provoking work,- ‘Making Sense of it All’ by Thomas V Morris deals with the questions that one come across in his life time and the greatest human effort to comprehend what this life is all about. Morris is of the opinion that faith and reason can do a lot in one’s life.  He reflects that faith in Jesus Christ is the sole answer to mankind’s tribulations. Through a contemporary and straight forward writing style Morris’s work focuses mainly on the argument towards theism and Christianity. Thomas V. Morris makes clear that: “For the most part, we sleepwalk through life.” (Morris 1) we don’t realize the real meaning of life but simply live like animals. The main idea of the work is derived from the notes made by Blaise Pascal for ‘Pensees’, a book which he intended to write, but never written due  to his untimely death. Morris was very much enthralled by these writings. Morris used these as a step ladder to investigate the nature of devotion, motive and the significance of life. His coherent reflections provide a new outlook for a considerate individual in the journey of life. The first part of the work deals with the early life of Pascal whose father being his educator and guide throughout his life. At the age of thirty one, Pascal had a mystical experience which was referred to by biographers as ‘The Night of Fire’. He opines that religious life is not to be compartmentalized from the life of intellect. He talks vividly about love. His idea of truth was that a person who tells lies requires not only memory but also imagination. The last chapter deals with his view of life which should be filled with wisdom, happiness and peace. Morris prepared this apologetic book for the common man and not just philosophers and theologians. Analysis of Text: Thomas V. Morris’s ‘Making Sense of it all: Pascal and the Meaning of Life’ is an interesting work that deals with different questions and perspectives related to one’s basic life. This work presents itself as a kind of follow-up of the philosophic quest of Blaise Pascal. The author adopted several ideas from Pascal’s philosophical theories, but inculcated his own outlook and ideas on life. This work mainly focuses on argument towards belief in God and Christianity. Besides, the work follows simple style of writing which is acceptable to all. In addition, the work develops into a persuasive form by answering the argument of the philosophical questions raised by Pascal, the philosopher. For instance, the work persist readers to contemplate deep on one’s perspectives on life and its practicality. It communicates with the reader very captivatingly so that one is forced to keep one’s mind open to perceive the arguments that are presented in the work. Moreover, the reader may have different idea about life but the main objective is that this work forces the reader to start thinking about the essence of life as a whole. The organizational method adopted by the author in this work is comparison/contrast between Pascal’s philosophy and today’s other philosophical theories. For instance, Morris compares/ contrasts Cornelius Jansen’s theories on religion with Pascal’s philosophy and its influence on celebrities like woody Allen. The words of Morris make clear that: “In this book I want to explore with Pascal those most important questions for getting our bearings.” (Morris 2) he is deeply influenced by the philosophy of Pascal the mathematician and philosopher. To develop the theme, Morris made use of the relation between cause and effect of different types of faith and reason in day to day life. For instance, Morris made use of theological, philosophical and human existence of Christian theism to answer the secrecy of human life. Besides, Morris made use of analogical development of different ideas by connecting each under the single theme of life and related questions. For example, Morris connected the theories of Pascal, Tolstoy, Cornelius Jansen and other thinkers and philosophers to develop the argument. Morris highly depends upon the theories of Pascal who was in search of God /eternal truth/essence and aim of human life. The technique of persuading the reader through innumerable number of examples adopted by the author in this work helps the individual reader to ask questions to his or her self and to seek more evidence for the same in the work. For instance, the discussion on religious theories related to the essence of Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and other religions persuade the individual reader to contemplate upon the questions raised by the author and to find out answers to the same. So, one can see that the organizational method adopted by the author to develop the argument or theme of the book really helps the reader to have deeper understanding of the same. In the book, one can identify innumerable number of evidences to support the argument put forth by the author. To support the argument of existence of god and to convince the existence of god, Morris made use of essays and quotes of experts like Tolstoy, Einstein, Woody Allen and Jansen and so on. For instance, Tolstoy’s ‘confession’ consists of four interconnected topics. They are (a) the reality of suffering, (2) inevitability of death, (3) the meaning of life, and (4) the existence of god. Besides, Morris pointed out a number of films by Woody Allen to support his argument. For instance, in the film ‘Hannah and her sister’ the connection among four issues such as suffering, death, meaning and god is pointed out. Besides, Morris owes the word of famous scientist Albert Einstein. He makes clear that imagination is more significant than knowledge because it possesses immense power for good and immense power to betray. Furthermore, Morris deals with the ideas of famous religious thinker Jansen who describes the importance of grace of almighty in the economy of salvation and the inevitability living out for one’s belief on regular basis. So, one can see the evidence presented to support the argument helps one to have deep understanding of the theme. Some of the evidences that can be pointed out from the work are strong to support the argument. But some other evidences fail to support the argument and it can be termed under weak evidences. For instance, Morris justifies his claims with strong evidence by adopting examples from essays and quotes of great philosophers, celebrities, and scientists. In addition, Tolstoy’s ideas on religion and Einstein’s theories support Pascal’s   philosophy and religious thought. They all claim that grace of god is essential for meaningful life of human. Morris analyzes the difference between Pascal and other philosophers in a convincing manner by quoting innumerable number of examples. Morris makes clear that: “Pascal was no mere thinker. He was a doer.” (Morris 7) Pascal was not a fantasist but a person who believed in practicality. But the usage of mathematical method to prove the ideas on eternal life, existence of god, Christian beliefs and non beliefs seems to be a little bit confusing to any common man without any deep knowledge in mathematical theories. But Morris’s theological, existential and philosophical quest presented in the form of question answer technique is really interesting. For instance, the questions related to the existence of human race in this world, one’s aim haunt and force one to find out the answer by one’s own. The work is not only an analysis of Pascal’s theories but an expedition to the unknown areas of one’s inner mind to find out a convincing and independent answer. But the work does not help one to find out the answer but it helps to search for a more convincing answer. The existential , and theological theories that are dealt with in the work is the outer covering but the inner core deals with some questions related to existentialism and the aim of human life as a whole. The questions that are raised by Morris in this work help one to search for the eternal truth or the real motive of all types of religious theories and thoughts. Morris makes clear that: “The question about the existence of God, likewise, is not just a question about whether one more thing exists in the inventory of reality.” (Morris 25) The scope of the question on the existence of God is not limited to the sphere of existence but it possesses other scopes on human life, faith and existence. So, the scope of the argument raised by the writer is not limited within the sphere of the work, but it helps one to understand the existence of almighty, origin of human race and our aim. So, one can see that the completeness of the argument raised by the author is not limited within the sphere of Pascalian philosophy or other theories related to religion. But its scope is beyond the limits of the work. When the argument of a work is limited within its framework, it lacks the broader scope of universality. In this sense, the argument raised by Morris is with immense scope and its completeness is beyond the framework of Pascalian philosophy. The work by Morris deals with the philosophical quest of Pascal the mathematician cum philosopher to answer the arguments raised by philosophers and common people on the existence of god, importance of faith and reason in one’s life and Christianity. When this work is compared to the work of James A. Walters, namely-‘The Purpose of Life’, one can see that Morris’s work revolves around the philosophical quest of Pascal. But the second work is with broader scope because it helps one have broader outlook on spirit of love, goodness, Jesus Christ, universal brotherhood, optimistic attitude towards future, god’s love towards humanity importance of children in human life etc. But Morris limits his theme within the sphere of philosophical thought and related facts. At the same time, Walters deals with all the aspects related to human life. Both the works develop through a question answer method but Walters’ ides are more precise and genuine because on cannot trace any influence of philosophical school in this work. James A. Walters in the work-‘The Purpose of Life’ makes clear that: “Thousands and millions have walked this way from the dawn of time, many growing weary have fallen by the way ere the journey was well begun” (Walters 12) innumerable number of people tries to unearth the secret of infinity but most of them were unable to reach their destiny. When one realizes the presence of infinity/god, the whole world will appear as a more beautiful place to live. The secret of nature/god cannot be realized fully but the search will help one to realize the purpose of human life. So, one can see that Morris is deeply influenced by Pascal and it forced him to limit the quest within the sphere of Pascal’s ideas on religion, human life and faith. Evaluation of the Text: When one consider the work as an introduction to the philosophy of Pascal the great mathematician, comparison of Pascal’s philosophy with other philosophical schools, thinkers and theoreticians, the aim of the author is fulfilled to an extent. But when one consider it as a pure philosophical work, the deep influence of Pascal and his philosophy hinder the scope of the work as a pure and genuine creation. Besides, the work can be considered as attribute to Pascal. In addition, Pascal was basically a mathematician and not a philosopher. Morris makes clear that: “But Pascal has also been called a holy man, a prophet, and one of our greatest religious authors.” (Morris 11) Pascal was one of the important religious thinkers and philosophers. The due importance given to the philosophical ideas of Pascal on religion, faith and existence of god limits the scope of the work. If the reader’s favorite writer is Pascal, the work can be considered as a tribute to Pascal and his philosophy and can trace innumerable number of evidences to prove his influence on the author. But when one approaches the work from the view point of a common man who wants to have more ideas on philosophy, religion, faith, aim and existence of human life, the work will not provide any special information beyond the theories of Pascal. The overall usefulness of the work is related to the audience that the author aims to reach. The usefulness of the work as a pure philosophical creation is limited because it strictly follows the footsteps of Pascal, the mathematician. But the questions that are raised by the author really help the common man to quench his or her enthusiasm on existence of human life, faith, religion and Christianity. If I were a hard core Pascalian fan, I would have admired this work. But the work is a tribute to Pascalian philosophy and this limits the scope of the work to the sphere of appreciation. Some of the aspects discussed in the work are interesting. For instance, the simple language, techniques used by the author to develop the work like question answer method really helps one to be attentive. But the influence of Pascalian philosophy hinders the progress of the work as a unique creation aimed to reach the mass. By summing up, the analysis of the work proves that the main objective is that this work forces the reader to start thinking about the essence of life as a whole. Besides, the organizational method adopted by the author to develop the argument or theme of the book really helps the reader to have deeper understanding of the work. In addition, the evidence presented to support the argument helps one to have deep understanding of the theme. But the argument of a work is limited within its framework and it lacks the broader scope of universality. The evaluation of the work makes clear that the influence of Pascalian philosophy hinders the progress of the work as a unique creation aimed to reach the mass. So, one can see that the work by - ‘Making sense of it all’ by Thomas V. Morris is a tribute to Pascalian philosophy and an easy digestible work written in a simple language aiming all types of individuals. Works cited Morris, Thomas V. Making sense of it all: Pascal and the meaning of life. USA: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1992. Walters, James A. The Purpose of Life. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008. Read More