Description

Teilhard de Chardin: Rogue Theologian

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Introduction

The French Jesuit Pere Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was one of the most well-known theologians of the 20th century. However, his writings were condemned several times by the Holy See. In this essay I shall give a list of the various admonitions received by this author, whose books still enjoy wide circulation.

De Chardin, who attempted to create a fusion of Christianity and evolutionary theory, taught not so much Catholicism as New Age Hinduism, as his teachings were to all in intents and purposes, pantheism (the belief that God is everything). De Chardin was a New Ager, possibly one of the first Catholic clerics to fall into this error, and certainly the most influential. Clearly this view is in no way compatible with Catholic doctrine, and the history of his disputes with Rome bears this out.

Here is an example of the nonsense de Chardin pumped out:
"What we call inorganic matter is certainly animate in its own way . . . Atoms, electrons, elementary particles . . . must have a spark of spirit." (Science and Christ, written 1920s, published in English in 1968)

His belief is that matter is in fact conscious is to be found elsewhere in his writings as well:
"It is the very nature of Matter, when raised corpuscularly to a very high degree of complexity, to become centred and interiorized - that is to say, to endow itself with consciousness," (The Future of Mankind, p.226; cited in Wolfgang Smith, "Teilhardism and the New Religion" p. 49) "We are logically forced to assume the existence in rudimenary form of some sort of psyche in every corpuscle, even in those whose complexity is of such a low or modest order as to render it imperceptible." (The Phenomenon of Man, p. 301-2, cited in Smith, op. cit.p. 49).


Teilhard goes even further off base when he denies the immutability of God:
"As a direct consequence of the unitive process by which God is revealed to us, he in some way 'transforms himself' as he incorporates us." (The Heart of Matter, p. 52-3; in Smith, op. cit.p. 104)

"I see in the World a mysterious product of completion and fulfillment for the Absolute Being himself" ( The Heart of Matter, p. 54; in Smith, op. cit.p. 104)

But God IS; He is not "becoming" as many verses in Scripture will verify (e.g John 8:58). Teilhard's theology is based on evolution as a superdogma under which all religious dogmas must be subsumed. Elsewhere he wrote: 'Is evolution a theory, a system, or a hypothesis? It is much more: it is the general condition to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must bow and which they must satisfy henceforward if they are to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light illuminating all facts, a curve that all lines must follow.' (Human Energy, p. 96)

A rejection of the truth of unchanging dogma, such as Original Sin, the doctrine of grace, and the meaning of Redemption, which constitute the very foundation of Christianity, is exactly what Teilhard envisions. For him no dogma is unchangeable, and hence his teachings are an essential negation of Christian revelation. One cannot be a Christian and accept Teilhardism.

The reader can find a review of Wolfgang Smith's book at http://www.tcrnews2.com/Teilhard.html


List of Admonitions

De Chardin was first silenced by the Jesuit order from 1926 and this remained in effect till his death. In 1933 he was ordered by Rome to give up his teaching post in Paris, and a few years later (in 1939) Rome banned his work "L'energie humaine". Again in 1947, Rome forbade him to teach or to write on philosophical themes. A year later, de Chardin was again refused permission to publish his work "Le Phenomene Humain" (the first prohibition having been issues four years earlier). A similar prohibition of "Le Groupe Zoologique" followed in 1949. In 1957, the Holy Office (the former name for the Sacred Congregation ofr the Doc