Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |
![Teilhard de Chardin(1).jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ac/Teilhard_de_Chardin%281%29.jpg/220px-Teilhard_de_Chardin%281%29.jpg) |
Born | 1 May 1881 Orcines, Auvergne, France |
Died | 10 April 1955 (aged 73) New York City, New York, U.S. |
Nationality | French |
Fields | Paleontology, philosophy,theology, cosmology, evolutionary theory |
Known for | The Phenomenon of Man,The Divine Milieu, the synthesis of theology and science |
Influences | St. Paul, St. John the Evangelist, Origen, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Henri Bergson, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher |
Influenced | Henri de Lubac, Thomas Berry, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Pope Benedict XVI |
During his lifetime, many of Teilhard's writings were
censored by the Catholic Church because of his views on
original sin. Recently Teilhard has been praised by
Pope Benedict XVI and other eminent Catholic figures. The response to his writings by evolutionary biologists has been, with some exceptions, decidedly negative.
Life
Early years
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born in the Château of Sarcenat at
Orcines, close to
Clermont-Ferrand,
France, on May 1, 1881. On the Teilhard side he is descended from an ancient family of magistrates from
Auvergne originating in
Murat, Cantal, and on the de Chardin side he is descended from a family that was ennobled under
Louis XVIII. He was the fourth of eleven children. His father, Emmanuel Teilhard (1844–1932), an amateur
naturalist, collected stones, insects and plants and promoted the observation of nature in the household. Pierre Teilhard's
spirituality was awakened by his mother, Berthe de Dompiere. When he was 12, he went to the
Jesuit college of Mongré, in
Villefranche-sur-Saône, where he completed
baccalaureates of
philosophyand
mathematics. Then, in 1899, he entered the Jesuit novitiate at
Aix-en-Provence, where he began a philosophical, theological and spiritual career.
As of the summer 1901, the
Waldeck-Rousseau laws, which submitted congregational associations' properties to state control, prompted some of the Jesuits to exile themselves in the
United Kingdom. Young Jesuit students continued their studies in
Jersey. In the meantime, Teilhard earned a licentiate in literature in
Caen in 1902.
Academic career
From 1905 to 1908, he taught
physics and
chemistry in
Cairo,
Egypt, at the
JesuitCollege of the Holy Family. He wrote "... it is the dazzling of the East foreseen and drunk greedily ... in its lights, its vegetation, its fauna and its deserts." (
Letters from Egypt (1905–1908) —
Éditions Aubier)
Teilhard studied theology in
Hastings, in
Sussex (United Kingdom), from 1908 to 1912. There he synthesized his scientific, philosophical and theological knowledge in the light of
evolution. His reading of
L'Évolution Créatrice (The Creative Evolution) by
Henri Bergson was, he said, the "catalyst of a fire which devoured already its heart and its spirit." Teilhard was
ordained a
priest on August 24, 1911, at age 30.
Paleontology
From 1912 to 1914, Teilhard worked in the
paleontology laboratory of the
Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, in
Paris, studying the
mammals of the middle
Tertiaryperiod. Later he studied elsewhere in
Europe. In June 1912 he formed part of the original digging team, with
Arthur Smith Woodward and
Charles Dawson at the
Piltdown site, after the discovery of the first fragments of the (fraudulent) "
Piltdown Man", with some even suggesting he participated in the hoax.
[1][2] Professor
Marcellin Boule (specialist in
Neanderthal studies), who so early as 1915 astutely recognized the non-
hominid origins of the Piltdown finds, gradually guided Teilhard towards human paleontology. At the museum's Institute of Human Paleontology, he became a friend of
Henri Breuil and took part with him, in 1913, in excavations at the prehistoric painted
Caves of Castillo in the northwest of Spain.
Service in World War I
Throughout these years of war he developed his reflections in his diaries and in letters to his cousin, Marguerite Teillard-Chambon, who later edited them into a book:
Genèse d'une pensée (
Genesis of a thought). He confessed later: "...the war was a meeting ... with the Absolute." In 1916, he wrote his first essay:
La Vie Cosmique (
Cosmic life), where his scientific and philosophical thought was revealed just as his mystical life. He pronounced his solemn vows as a Jesuit in
Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, on May 26, 1918, during a leave. In August 1919, in
Jersey, he would write
Puissance spirituelle de la Matière (
The Spiritual Power of Matter).
Research in China
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Homo_erectus_pekinensis_-_archeaeological.png/220px-Homo_erectus_pekinensis_-_archeaeological.png)
Forensic facial reconstruction of Homo erectus pekinensis.
In 1923, he travelled to
China with Father
Emile Licent, who was in charge in
Tianjin of a significant laboratory collaboration between the
Natural History Museum in
Paris and Marcellin Boule's laboratory. Licent carried out considerable basic work in connection with
missionarieswho accumulated observations of a scientific nature in their spare time. He was known as 德日進 (pinyin: Dérìjìn) in China.
Teilhard wrote several essays, including
La Messe sur le Monde (the
Mass on the World), in the
Ordos Desert. In the following year he continued lecturing at the Catholic Institute and participated in a cycle of conferences for the students of the Engineers' Schools. Two theological essays on
Original Sin sent to a theologian at his request on a purely personal basis were wrongly understood.
- July 1920: Chute, Rédemption et Géocentrie (Fall, Redemption and Geocentry)
- Spring 1922: Notes sur quelques représentations historiques possibles du Péché originel (Note on Some Possible Historical Representations of Original Sin) (Works, Tome X)
The
Church required him to give up his lecturing at the Catholic Institute and to continue his geological research in China.
Teilhard traveled again to China in April 1926. He would remain there more or less twenty years, with many voyages throughout the world. He settled until 1932 in
Tientsin with Emile Licent then in
Beijing. From 1926 to 1935, Teilhard made five geological research expeditions in China. They enabled him to establish a general geological map of China.
In 1926, Teilhard’s superiors in the Jesuit Order forbade him to teach any longer. In 1926–1927 after a missed campaign in
Gansu, he traveled in the
Sang-Kan-Ho valley near Kalgan (
Zhangjiakou) and made a tour in Eastern
Mongolia. He wrote
Le Milieu Divin (
The Divine Milieu). Teilhard prepared the first pages of his main work
Le Phénomène Humain (
The Human Phenomenon). The Holy See refused the Imprimatur for
Le Milieu Divin in 1927.
Henri Breuil and Teilhard discovered that the
Peking Man, the nearest relative of
Pithecanthropus from
Java, was a
faber (worker of stones and controller of fire). Teilhard wrote
L'Esprit de la Terre (
the Spirit of the Earth).
In 1933, Rome ordered him to give up his post in Paris.
Teilhard undertook several explorations in the south of China. He traveled in the valleys of
Yangtze River and
Sichuan in 1934, then, the following year, in
Kwang-If and
Guangdong. The relationship with Marcellin Boule was disrupted; the museum cut its financing on the grounds that Teilhard worked more for the Chinese Geological Service than for the museum.
During all these years, Teilhard strongly contributed to the constitution of an international network of research in human paleontology related to the whole Eastern and south Eastern zone of the Asian continent. He would be particularly associated in this task with two friends, the English/Canadian Davidson Black and the
Scot George B. Barbour. Many times he would visit
France or the
United States only to leave these countries to go on further expeditions.
World travels
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/TeilhardP_1947.jpg/220px-TeilhardP_1947.jpg)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1947)
From 1930–1931, Teilhard stayed in France and in the United States. During a conference in Paris, Teilhard stated: "For the observers of the Future, the greatest event will be the sudden appearance of a collective humane
conscience and a human work to make."
In 1937, Teilhard wrote
Le Phénomène spirituel (
The Phenomenon of the Spirit) on board the boat
the Empress of Japan, where he met the
Raja of
Sarawak. The ship conveyed him to the United States. He received the
Mendel Medal granted by
Villanova University during the Congress of
Philadelphia in recognition of his works on human paleontology. He made a speech about
evolution, origins and the destiny of Man. The
New York Times dated March 19, 1937 presented Teilhard as the Jesuit who held that
man descended from
monkeys. Some days later, he was to be granted the
Doctor Honoris Causa distinction from
Boston College. Upon arrival in that city, he was told that the award had been cancelled.
1939: Rome banned his work L’Énergie Humaine.
He then stayed in France, where he was immobilized by
malaria. During his return voyage to Beijing he wrote
L'Energie spirituelle de la Souffrance (
Spiritual Energy of Suffering) (Complete Works, tome VII).
1941: Teilhard submitted to Rome his most important work, Le Phénomène Humain.
1947: Rome forbade him to write or teach on philosophical subjects.
1948: Teilhard was called to Rome by the Superior General of the Jesuits who hoped to acquire permission from the Holy See for the publication of his most important work Le Phénomène Humain. But the prohibition to publish it issued in 1944, was again renewed. Teilhard was also forbidden to take a teaching post in the College de France.
1949: Permission to publish Le Groupe Zoologique was refused.
1955: Teilhard was forbidden by his Superiors to attend the International Congress of Paleontology.
1957: The Supreme Authority of the Holy Office, in a decree dated 15 November 1957, forbade the works of de Chardin to be retained in libraries, including those of
religious institutes. His books were not to be sold in Catholic bookshops and were not to be translated into other languages.
1958: In April of this year, all Jesuit publications in Spain ("Razón y Fe", "Sal Terrae","Estudios de Deusto") etc., carried a notice from the Spanish Provincial of the Jesuits that Teilhard's works had been published in Spanish without previous ecclesiastical examination and in defiance of the decrees of the Holy See.
1962: A decree of the Holy Office dated 30 June, under the authority of Pope John XXIII warned that "... it is obvious that in philosophical and theological matters, the said works [Teilhard’s] are replete with ambiguities or rather with serious errors which offend Catholic doctrine. That is why... the Rev. Fathers of the Holy Office urge all Ordinaries, Superiors, and Rectors... to effectively protect, especially the minds of the young, against the dangers of the works of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin and his followers". (AAS, 6 August 1962).
1963: The Vicariate of Rome (a diocese ruled in the name of Pope Paul VI (who had just become Pope in 1963) by his Cardinal Vicar) in a decree dated 30 September, required that Catholic booksellers in Rome should withdraw from circulation the works of Teilhard, together with those books which favour his erroneous doctrines. The text of this document was published in daily L’Aurore of Paris, dated 2 October 1963, and was reproduced in Nouvelles De Chrétienté, 10 October 1963, p. 35.
Death
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin died in
New York City, where he was in residence at the Jesuit
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola,
Park Avenue. On March 15, 1955, at the house of his diplomat cousin Jean de Lagarde, Teilhard told friends he hoped he would die on Easter Sunday.
[4] In the
Easter Sunday evening of April 10, 1955, during an animated discussion at the apartment of Rhoda de Terra, his personal assistant since 1949, the 73-year-old priest suffered a heart attack; regaining consciousness for a moment, he died a few minutes later.
[5] He was buried in the cemetery for the New York Province of the Jesuits at the Jesuit novitiate, St. Andrew's-on-the-Hudson in
Poughkeepsie,
upstate New York.
[6]Teachings
His posthumously published book,
The Phenomenon of Man, sets forth a sweeping account of the unfolding of the
cosmos and the evolution of matter to humanity, to ultimately a reunion with Christ. In the book, Teilhard abandoned literal interpretations of creation in the
Book of Genesis in favor of allegorical and theological interpretations. The unfolding of the material
cosmos, is described from
primordial particles to the development of life, human beings and the
noosphere, and finally to his vision of the
Omega Point in the future, which is "pulling" all creation towards it. He was a leading proponent of
orthogenesis, the idea that
evolution occurs in a directional, goal-driven way, argued in terms that today go under the banner of
convergent evolution. Teilhard argued in
Darwinian terms with respect to biology, and supported the
synthetic model of evolution, but argued in
Lamarckian terms for the development of culture, primarily through the vehicle of education.
[8] Teilhard made a total commitment to the evolutionary process in the 1920s as the core of his spirituality, at a time when other religious thinkers felt evolutionary thinking challenged the structure of conventional Christian faith. He committed himself to what the evidence showed.
[9]Teilhard makes sense of the
universe by its evolutionary process. He interprets complexity as the axis of evolution of matter into a geosphere, a biosphere, into consciousness (in man), and then to supreme consciousness (the Omega Point.)
Teilhard’s unique relationship to both
paleontology and
Catholicism allowed him to develop a highly progressive, cosmic theology which takes into account his evolutionary studies. Teilhard recognized the importance of bringing the Church into the modern world, and approached
evolution as a way of providing ontological meaning for Christianity, particularly creation theology.
[10] For Teilhard, evolution was "the natural landscape where the history of salvation is situated."
[11]Teilhard’s cosmic theology is largely predicated on his interpretation of
Pauline scripture, particularly Colossians 1:15-17 (especially verse 1:17b) and 1Corinthians 15:28. Teilhard draws on the Christocentrism of these two Pauline passages to construct a cosmic theology which recognizes the absolute primacy of Christ. He understands creation to be "a
teleological process towards union with the Godhead, effected through the incarnation and redemption of Christ, ‘in whom all things hold together’ (Col. 1:17)."
[12] He further posits that creation will not be complete until "participated being is totally united with God through Christ in the
Pleroma, when God will be ‘all in all’ (1Cor. 15:28)."
[12]Teilhard's life work was predicated on the conviction that human spiritual development is moved by the same universal laws as material development. He wrote, "...everything is the sum of the past" and "...nothing is comprehensible except through its history. 'Nature' is the equivalent of 'becoming', self-creation: this is the view to which experience irresistibly leads us. ... There is nothing, not even the human soul, the highest spiritual manifestation we know of, that does not come within this universal law."
[13] There is no doubt that
The Phenomenon of Man represents Teilhard's attempt at reconciling his religious
faith with his academic interests as a
paleontologist.
[14] One particularly poignant observation in Teilhard's book entails the notion that
evolution is becoming an increasingly optional
process.
[14] Teilhard points to the societal problems of
isolation and
marginalization as huge
inhibitors of evolution, especially since evolution requires a unification of
consciousness. He states that "no evolutionary future awaits anyone except in association with everyone else."
[14] Teilhard argued that the human condition necessarily leads to the psychic unity of humankind, though he stressed that this unity can only be voluntary; this voluntary psychic unity he termed "unanimization." Teilhard also states that "evolution is an ascent toward consciousness", giving
encephalization as an example of early stages, and therefore, signifies a continuous upsurge toward the
Omega Point,
[14]which for all intents and purposes, is
God.
Teilhard also used his perceived correlation between spiritual and material to describe Christ, arguing that Christ not only has a
mystical dimension, but also takes on a physical dimension as he becomes the organizing principle of the universe—that is, the one who "holds together" the universe (Col. 1:17b). For Teilhard, Christ forms not only the
eschatological end toward which his mystical/ecclesial body is oriented, but he also "operates physically in order to regulate all things"
[15] becoming "the one from whom all creation receives its stability."
[16] In other words, as the one who holds all things together, "Christ exercises a supremacy over the universe which is physical, not simply juridical. He is the unifying centre of the universe and its goal. The function of holding all things together indicates that Christ is not only man and God; he also possesses a third aspect—indeed, a third nature—which is cosmic."
[17] In this way, the Pauline description of the
Body of Christ is not simply a mystical or
ecclesial concept for Teilhard; it is cosmic. This cosmic Body of Christ "extend[s] throughout the universe and compris[es] all things that attain their fulfillment in Christ [so that] . . . the Body of Christ is the one single thing that is being made in creation."
[18] Teilhard describes this cosmic amassing of Christ as "Christogenesis." According to Teilhard, the universe is engaged in Christogenesis as it evolves toward its full realization at
Omega, a point which coincides with the fully realized Christ.
[12] It is at this point that God will be ‘all in all’ (1Cor. 15:28c).
Our century is probably more religious than any other. How could it fail to be, with such problems to be solved? The only trouble is that it has not yet found a God it can adore.
[14]
Relationship with the Catholic Church
This was the first of a series of condemnations by certain
ecclesiastical officials that would continue until after Teilhard's death. The climax of these condemnations was a 1962
monitum (reprimand) of the
Holy Office cautioning on Teilhard's works. It said in part:
[19]The above-mentioned works abound in such ambiguities and indeed even serious errors, as to offend Catholic doctrine... For this reason, the most eminent and most revered Fathers of the Holy Office exhort all Ordinaries as well as the superiors of Religious institutes, rectors of seminaries and presidents of universities, effectively to protect the minds, particularly of the youth, against the dangers presented by the works of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin and of his followers.
The Holy Office did not place any of Teilhard's writings on the
Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Forbidden Books), which existed during Teilhard's lifetime and at the time of the 1962 decree.
Shortly thereafter, prominent clerics mounted a strong theological defense of Teilhard's works.
Henri de Lubac (later a Cardinal) wrote three comprehensive books on the theology of Teilhard de Chardin in the 1960s. While de Lubac mentioned that Teilhard was less than precise in some of his concepts, he affirmed the orthodoxy of Teilhard de Chardin and responded to Teilhard's critics: "We need not concern ourselves with a number of detractors of Teilhard, in whom emotion has blunted intelligence".
[20] Later that decade
Joseph Ratzinger, a German theologian who became Pope Benedict XVI, spoke glowingly of Teilhard's Christology in Ratzinger's
Introduction to Christianity:
[21]It must be regarded as an important service of Teilhard de Chardin’s that he rethought these ideas from the angle of the modern view of the world and, in spite of a not entirely unobjectionable tendency toward the biological approach, nevertheless on the whole grasped them correctly and in any case made them accessible once again. Let us listen to his own words: The human monad "can only be absolutely itself by ceasing to be alone". In the background is the idea that in the cosmos, alongside the two orders or classes of the infinitely small and the infinitely big, there is a third order, which determines the real drift of evolution, namely, the order of the infinitely complex. It is the real goal of the ascending process of growth or becoming; it reaches a first peak in the genesis of living things and then continues to advance to those highly complex creations that give the cosmos a new center: "Imperceptible and accidental as the position they hold may be in the history of the heavenly bodies, in the last analysis the planets are nothing less than the vital points of the universe. It is through them that the axis now runs, on them is henceforth concentrated the main effort of an evolution aiming principally at the production of large molecules." The examination of the world by the dynamic criterion of complexity thus signifies "a complete inversion of values. A reversal of the perspective...
This leads to a further passage in Teilhard de Chardin that is worth quoting in order to give at least some indication here, by means of a few fragmentary excerpts, of his general outlook. "The Universal Energy must be a Thinking Energy if it is not to be less highly evolved than the ends animated by its action. And consequently ... the attributes of cosmic value with which it is surrounded in our modern eyes do not affect in the slightest the necessity obliging us to recognize in it a transcendent form of Personality.
"What our contemporaries will undoubtedly remember, beyond the difficulties of conception and deficiencies of expression in this audacious attempt to reach a synthesis, is the testimomy of the coherent life of a man possessed by Christ in the depths of his soul. He was concerned with honoring both faith and reason, and anticipated the response to John Paul II's appeal: 'Be not afraid, open, open wide to Christ the doors of the immense domains of culture, civilization, and progress.
[22]
In his own poetic style, the French Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin liked to meditate on the Eucharist as the first fruits of the new creation. In an essay called The Monstrance he describes how, kneeling in prayer, he had a sensation that the Host was beginning to grow until at last, through its mysterious expansion, 'the whole world had become incandescent, had itself become like a single giant Host.' Although it would probably be incorrect to imagine that the universe will eventually be transubstantiated, Teilhard correctly identified the connection between the Eucharist and the final glorification of the cosmos.
Hardly anyone else has tried to bring together the knowledge of Christ and the idea of evolution as the scientist (paleontologist) and theologian Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., has done. ... His fascinating vision ... has represented a great hope, the hope that faith in Christ and a scientific approach to the world can be brought together. ... These brief references to Teilhard cannot do justice to his efforts. The fascination which Teilhard de Chardin exercised for an entire generation stemmed from his radical manner of looking at science and Christian faith together.
Pope Benedict XVI, in his book
Spirit of the Liturgy incorporates Teilhard's vision as a touchstone of the Catholic Mass:
[25] And so we can now say that the goal of worship and the goal of creation as a whole are one and the same—divinization, a world of freedom and love. But this means that the historical makes its appearance in the cosmic. The cosmos is not a kind of closed building, a stationary container in which history may by chance take place. It is itself movement, from its one beginning to its one end. In a sense, creation is history. Against the background of the modern evolutionary world view, Teilhard de Chardin depicted the cosmos as a process of ascent, a series of unions. From very simple beginnings the path leads to ever greater and more complex unities, in which multiplicity is not abolished but merged into a growing synthesis, leading to the "Noosphere", in which spirit and its understanding embrace the whole and are blended into a kind of living organism. Invoking the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, Teilhard looks on Christ as the energy that strives toward the Noosphere and finally incorporates everything in its "fullness’. From here Teilhard went on to give a new meaning to Christian worship: the transubstantiated Host is the anticipation of the transformation and divinization of matter in the christological "fullness". In his view, the Eucharist provides the movement of the cosmos with its direction; it anticipates its goal and at the same time urges it on.
in July 2009, Vatican spokesman Fr.
Federico Lombardi said, "By now, no one would dream of saying that [Teilhard] is a heterodox author who shouldn’t be studied."
[26]Evaluations by scientists
According to
Daniel Dennett, "it has become clear to the point of unanimity among scientists that Teilhard offered nothing serious in the way of an alternative to orthodoxy; the ideas that were peculiarly his were confused, and the rest was just bombastic redescription of orthodoxy."
[28]In 1961, the Nobel Prize-winner
Peter Medawar, a British immunologist, wrote a scornful review of
The Phenomenon Of Man for the journal
Mind:
[29] "the greater part of it, I shall show, is nonsense, tricked out with a variety of metaphysical conceits, and its author can be excused of dishonesty only on the grounds that before deceiving others he has taken great pains to deceive himself".
The evolutionary biologist
Richard Dawkins called Medawar's review "devastating" and
The Phenomenon of Man "the quintessence of bad poetic science".
[30] Similarly,
Steven Rose wrote that "Teilhard is revered as a mystic of genius by some, but amongst most biologists is seen as little more than a
charlatan."
[31]Sir
Julian Huxley, the evolutionary biologist, praised the thought of Teilhard de Chardin for looking at the way in which human development needs to be examined within a larger integrated universal sense of evolution.
[32] Theodosius Dobzhansky drew upon Teilhard's insistence that evolutionary theory provides the core of how man understands his relationship to nature, calling him "one of the great thinkers of our age".
[33]George Gaylord Simpson, however, felt that if Teilhard were right, the lifework "of Huxley, Dobzhansky, and hundreds of others was not only wrong, but meaningless", and was mystified by their public support for him.
[34] He considered Teilhard a friend and his work in paleontology extensive and important, but expressed strongly adverse views of his contributions as scientific theorist and philosopher.
[35] Legacy
Brian Swimme wrote "Teilhard was one of the first scientists to realize that the human and the universe are inseparable. The only universe we know about is a universe that brought forth the human."
[37] Teilhard's work also inspired philosophical ruminations by Italian laureate architect
Paolo Soleri, artworks such as French painter
Alfred Manessier's
L'Offrande de la terre ou Hommage à Teilhard de Chardin and American sculptor
Frederick Hart's
acrylicsculpture
The Divine Milieu: Homage to Teilhard de Chardin.
[46] A sculpture of the Omega Point by Henry Setter, with a quote from Teilhard de Chardin, can be found at the entrance to the Roesch Library at the
University of Dayton.
[47] Edmund Rubbra's 1968 Symphony No. 8 is titled
Hommage à Teilhard de Chardin.
The De Chardin Project, a play celebrating Teilhard's life, ran from November 20 to December 14, 2014 in Toronto, Canada.
[48] The Evolution of Teilhard de Chardin, a documentary film on Teilhard's life, is expected to be released in 2015.
[48] Influence on the New Age movement
Teihard has had a profound influence on the
New Age movement and has been described as "perhaps the man most responsible for the spritiualization of evolution in a global and cosmic context".
[49] New Age figure and self-described evolutionary biologist
Jeremy Griffith described Teilhard as a "visionary" philosopher and a contemporary "truth-sayer" or "prophet".
[50]Bibliography
The dates in parentheses are the dates of first publication in French and English. Most of these works were written years earlier, but Teilhard's ecclesiastical order forbade him to publish them because of their controversial nature. The essay collections are organized by subject rather than date, thus each one typically spans many years.
- Le Phénomène Humain (1955), written 1938–40, scientific exposition of Teilhard's theory of evolution
- Letters From a Traveler (1956; English translation 1962), written 1923–55
- Le Groupe Zoologique Humain (1956), written 1949, more detailed presentation of Teilhard's theories
- Man's Place in Nature (English translation 1966)
- Le Milieu Divin (1957), spiritual book written 1926–27, in which the author seeks to offer a way for everyday life, or the secular, to be divinised.
- L'Avenir de l'Homme (1959) essays written 1920–52, on the evolution of consciousness (noosphere)
- Hymn of the Universe (1961; English translation 1965) Harper and Row: ISBN 0-06-131910-4, mystical/spiritual essays and thoughts written 1916–55
- L'Energie Humaine (1962), essays written 1931–39, on morality and love
- L'Activation de l'Energie (1963), sequel to Human Energy, essays written 1939–55 but not planned for publication, about the universality and irreversibility of human action
- Je M'Explique (1966) Jean-Pierre Demoulin, editor ISBN 0-685-36593-X, "The Essential Teilhard" — selected passages from his works
- Christianity and Evolution, Harvest/HBJ 2002: ISBN 0-15-602818-2
- The Heart of the Matter, Harvest/HBJ 2002: ISBN 0-15-602758-5
- Toward the Future, Harvest/HBJ 2002: ISBN 0-15-602819-0
- The Making of a Mind: Letters from a Soldier-Priest 1914–1919, Collins (1965), Letters written during wartime.
- Writings in Time of War, Collins (1968) composed of spiritual essays written during wartime. One of the few books of Teilhard to receive an imprimatur.
- Vision of the Past, Collins (1966) composed of mostly scientific essays published in the French science journal Etudes.
- The Appearance of Man, Collins (1965) composed of mostly scientific writings published in the French science journal Etudes.
- Letters to Two Friends 1926–1952, Fontana (1968). Composed of personal letters on varied subjects including his understanding of death. See Letters to Two Friends 1926–1952. Helen Weaver (translation). ISBN 9780853911432.OCLC 30268456.
- Letters to Léontine Zanta, Collins (1969)
- Correspondence / Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Maurice Blondel, Herder and Herder (1967) This correspondence also has both the imprimatur and nihil obstat.
- de Chardin, P T (1952). "On the zoological position and the evolutionary significance of Australopithecines". Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences (published Mar 1952). 14 (5): 208–10. PMID 14931535.
- de Terra, H; de Chardin, PT; Paterson, TT (1936). "Joint geological and prehistoric studies of the Late Cenozoic in India". Science (published 6 March 1936). 83(2149): 233–236. doi:10.1126/science.83.2149.233-a. PMID 17809311.
See also
References
- "Teilhard and the Piltdown 'Hoax'"
- http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-to-solve-human-evolutions-greatest-hoax-167921335/
- Aczel, Amir (4 November 2008). The Jesuit and the Skull: Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man. Riverhead Trade. p. 320. ISBN 978-1-594489-56-3.
- Smulders, Pieter Frans ♦ The design of Teilhard de Chardin: an essay in theological reflection 1967
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Further reading
- Amir Aczel, The Jesuit and the Skull: Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution and the Search for Peking Man (Riverhead Hardcover, 2007)
- Pope Benedict XVI, The Spirit of the Liturgy (Ignatian Press 2000)
- Pope Benedict XVI, Introduction to Christianity (Ignatius Press, Revised edition, 2004)
- John Cowburn, S.J., Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Selective Summary of His Life (Mosaic Press 2013)
- Claude Cuenot, Science and Faith in Teilhard de Chardin (Garstone Press, 1967)
- Andre Dupleix, 15 Days of Prayer with Teilhard de Chardin (New City Press, 2008)
- Enablers, T.C., 2015. 'Hominising - Realising Human Potential'. Available:http://www.laceweb.org.au/rhp.htm
- Robert Faricy, SJ, Teilhard de Chardin's Theology of Christian in the World (Sheed and Ward 1968)
- Robert Faricy, SJ, The Spirituality of Teilhard de Chardin (Collins 1981, Harper & Row 1981)
- Robert Faricy, SJ and Lucy Rooney SND,Praying with Teilhard de Chardin(Queenship 1996)
- David Grumett, Teilhard de Chardin: Theology, Humanity and Cosmos (Peeters 2005)
- Dietrich von Hildebrand, Teilhard de Chardin: A False Prophet (Franciscan Herald Press 1970)
- Dietrich von Hildebrand, Trojan Horse in the City of God
- Dietrich von Hildebrand, Devastated Vineyard
- Thomas M. King, SJ, Teilhard's Mass; Approaches to "The Mass on the World"(Paulist Press, 2005)
- Ursula King, Spirit of Fire: The Life and Vision of Teilhard de Chardin [1](Orbis Books, 1996)
- Richard W. Kropf, Teilhard, Scripture and Revelation: A Study of Teilhard de Chardin's Reinterpretation of Pauline Themes (Associated University Press, 1980)
- David H. Lane, The Phenomenon of Teilhard: Prophet for a New Age (Mercer University Press)
- Lubac, Henri de, SJ, The Religion of Teilhard de Chardin (Image Books, 1968)
- Lubac, Henri de, SJ, The Faith of Teilhard de Chardin (Burnes and Oates, 1965)
- Lubac, Henri de, SJ, The Eternal Feminine: A Study of the Text of Teilhard de Chardin (Collins, 1971)
- Lubac, Henri de, SJ, Teilhard Explained(Paulist Press, 1968)
- Mary and Ellen Lukas, Teilhard(Doubleday, 1977)
- Jean Maalouf Teilhard de Chardin, Reconciliation in Christ (New City Press, 2002)
- George A. Maloney, SJ, The Cosmic Christ: From Paul to Teilhard (Sheed and Ward, 1968)
- Mooney, Christopher, SJ, Teilhard de Chardin and the Mystery of Christ (Image Books, 1968)
- Murray, Michael H. The Thought of Teilhard de Chardin (Seabury Press, N.Y., 1966)
- Robert J. O'Connell, SJ, Teilhard's Vision of the Past: The Making of a Method, (Fordham University Press, 1982)
- Noel Keith Roberts, From Piltdown Man to Point Omega: the evolutionary theory of Teilhard de Chardin (New York, Peter Lang, 2000)
- James F. Salmon, S.J., 'Pierre Teilhard de Chardin' in The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012)
- Louis M. Savory, Teilhard de Chardin – The Divine Milieu Explained: A Spirituality for the 21st Century (Paulist Press, 2007)
- Robert Speaight, The Life of Teilhard de Chardin (Harper and Row, 1967)
- Helmut de Terra, Memories of Teilhard de Chardin, (Harper and Row and Wm Collins Sons & Co., 1964)
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