Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ (French: [pj teja d ad]; May 1, 1881 April 10, 1955) was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point (a maximum level of complexity and consciousness towards which he believed the universe was evolving) and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of noosphere. Teilhard de Chardin has two comprehensive works. First, 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. Following the leads of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, he abandoned literal interpretations of creation in the Book of Genesis in favor of allegorical and theological interpretations.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Born Died
May 1, 1881 Orcines, France April 10, 1955 (aged 73) New York, New York, USA Paleontology, philosophy, theology cosmology, evolutionary theory
Nationality French Fields
The second comprehensive work of Teilhard de Chardin is The Divine Milieu, in which he attempted to do two things. Inuences St. Paul, St. John the First, in the 19th and early 20th centuries Evangelist, Origen, St. there was a belief among some Catholics Gregory of Nyssa, St. and other Christians that in order to be Ignatius of Loyola, Henri holy one had to devote himself or Bergson herself to purely religious activity and that secular work had no lasting value. Inuenced Henri de Lubac, Thomas Teilhard de Chardin, consistent with the Berry, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Lopold Sdar Jesuit motto of nding God in all things, Senghor, Pope Benedict XVI wanted to demonstrate that secular work (including his own scientic work) was an integral element of creation and the Incarnation, so that for religious reasons, Christians should be committed to whatever work they were doing and oering it up for the service of God. Teilhard wants to show how all human activities and eorts toward personal growth and human progress can be used to help the
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Known for The Phenomenon of Man, The Divine Milieu, the synthesis of theology and science
growth and development of the Body of Christ. Not only are human eorts useful in this regard, but they are also somehow necessary. Even though people perform these actions as ordinary human beings, and they look like ordinary human actions, they are simultaneously being transformed in the divine milieu and become actions done in, with, and through Christ. Some of Teilhard de Chardin's ideas came into conict with certain ocials in the Roman Curia and in his own Jesuit order. Specically, Teilhard's superiors thought that Teilhard's views on the doctrine of original sin were contrary to Catholic doctrine. As a result, many of Teilhard's writings were prohibited from being published during his lifetime. Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi said in July 2009: "By now, no one would dream of saying that [Teilhard] is a heterodox [1] author who shouldnt be studied."
Contents
1 Life 1.1 Early years 1.2 Academic career 1.3 Paleontology 1.4 Service in World War I 1.5 Research in China 1.6 World travels 1.7 Death 2 Controversy with church ocials 3 Rehabilitation and Incorporation into Catholic Theology 4 Teachings 5 Legacy 5.1 Scientic 5.2 Arts and Culture 5.3 Bricks and mortar 6 Bibliography 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links 10.1 Pro 10.2 Contra 10.3 Other
Life
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Early years
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born in the Chteau 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 (18441932), 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 Mongr, in Villefranche-sur-Sane, where he completed baccalaureates of philosophy and 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.
Society of Jesus
History of the Jesuits Regimini militantis Suppression Jesuit Hierarchy Superior General Adolfo Nicols Ignatian Spirituality Spiritual Exercises Ad majorem Dei gloriam Magis Notable Jesuits St. Ignatius of Loyola St. Francis Xavier St. Peter Faber St. Aloysius Gonzaga St. Robert Bellarmine St. Peter Canisius St. Edmund Campion Pope Francis
Academic career
From 1905 to 1908, he taught physics and chemistry in Cairo, Egypt, at the Jesuit College 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 (19051908) ditions Aubier) Teilhard studied theology in Hastings, in Sussex (United Kingdom), from 1908 to 1912. There he synthesized his scientic, philosophical and theological knowledge in the light of evolution. His reading of L'volution Cratrice (The Creative Evolution) by Henri Bergson was, he said, the "catalyst of a re which devoured already its heart and its spirit." His views on evolution and religion particularly inspired the evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky. Teilhard was ordained a priest on August 24, 1911, aged 30.
Paleontology
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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 Tertiary period. Later he studied elsewhere in Europe. In June 1912 he formed part of the original digging team, with Arthur Smith Woodward and Charles Dawson, to perform follow-up investigations at the Piltdown site, after the discovery of the rst fragments of the (fraudulent) "Piltdown Man", with some [2] even suggesting he participated in the hoax. Professor Marcellin Boule (specialist in Neanderthal studies), who so early as 1915 astutely recognised the non-hominid origins of the Piltdown nds, 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 in the prehistoric painted caves in the northwest of Spain, at the Cave of Castillo.
Service in World War I

Mobilised in December 1914, Teilhard served in World War I as a stretcher-bearer in the 8th Moroccan Ries. For his valour, he received several citations including the Mdaille militaire and the Legion of Honour. Throughout these years of war he developed his reections in his diaries and in letters to his cousin, Marguerite Teillard-Chambon, who later edited them into a book: Gense d'une pense (Genesis of a thought). He confessed later: "...the war was a meeting ... with the Absolute." In 1916, he wrote his rst essay: La Vie Cosmique (Cosmic life), where his scientic and philosophical thought was revealed just as his mystical life. He pronounced his solemn vows as a Jesuit in Sainte-Foy-ls-Lyon, on May 26, 1918, during a leave. In August 1919, in Jersey, he would write Puissance spirituelle de la Matire (the spiritual Power of Matter). The complete essays written between 1916 and 1919 are published under the following titles: Ecrits du temps de la Guerre (Written in time of the War) (TXII of complete Works) Editions du Seuil Gense d'une pense (letters of 1914 to 1918) Editions Grasset Teilhard followed at the Sorbonne three unit degrees of natural science: geology, botany and zoology. His thesis treated of the mammals of the French lower Eocene and their stratigraphy. After 1920, he lectured in geology at the Catholic Institute of Paris, then became an assistant professor after being granted a science doctorate in 1922.
Research in China
In 1923 he traveled to China with Father Emile Licent, who was in charge in Tianjin of a signicant laboratory collaboration between the Natural History Museum in Paris and Marcellin Boule's laboratory. Licent carried out considerable
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basic work in connection with missionaries who accumulated observations of a scientic nature in their spare time. He was known as (pinyin: Drjn) 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.
[citation needed]
July 1920: Chute, Rdemption et Gocentrie (Fall, Redemption and Geocentry) Spring 1922: Notes sur quelques reprsentations historiques possibles du Pch originel (Notes on few 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 ve geological research expeditions in China. They enabled him to establish a general geological map of China. In 1926 Teilhards superiors in the Jesuit Order forbade him to teach any longer. In 19261927 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 Medium). Teilhard prepared the rst pages of his main work Le Phnomne Humain (The Human Phenomenon). The Holy See refused the Imprimatur for Le Milieu Divin in 1927. He joined the ongoing excavations of the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian as an advisor in 1926 and continued in the role for the Cenozoic Research Laboratory of the Geological Survey of China following its founding in 1928. He resided in Manchuria with Emile Licent, then stayed in Western Shansi (Shanxi) and northern Shensi (Shaanxi) with the Chinese paleontologist C. C. Young and with Davidson Black, Chairman of the Geological Survey of China. After a tour in Manchuria in the area of Great Khingan with Chinese geologists, Teilhard joined the team of American Expedition Center-Asia in the Gobi Desert organised in June and July, by the American Museum of Natural History with Roy Chapman Andrews. Henri Breuil and Teilhard discovered that the Peking Man, the nearest relative of
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Pithecanthropus from Java, was a faber (worker of stones and controller of re). Teilhard wrote L'Esprit de la Terre (the Spirit of the Earth). Teilhard took part as a scientist in the Croisiere Jaune (Yellow Cruise) nanced by Andre Citroen in Central Asia. Northwest of Beijing in Kalgan, he joined the Chinese group who joined the second part of the team, the Pamir group, in Aksu. He remained with his colleagues for several months in Urumqi, capital of Sinkiang. The following year the Sino-Japanese War (19371945) began. 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 nancing on the grounds that Teilhard worked more for the [citation needed] 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
From 1927 to 1928 Teilhard stayed in France, based in Paris. He journeyed to Leuven, Belgium, to Cantal, and to Arige, France. Between several articles in reviews, he met new people such as Paul Valry and Bruno de Solages, who were to help him in issues with the Catholic Church. Answering an invitation from Henry de Monfreid, Teilhard undertook a journey of two months in Obock, in Harrar and in Somalia with his colleague Pierre Lamarre, a geologist, before embarking in Djibouti to return to Tianjin. While in China, [3] Teilhard developed a deep and personal friendship with Lucile Swan. From 19301931 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." From 19321933 he began to meet people to clarify issues with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, regarding Le Milieu divin and L'Esprit de la Terre. He met Helmut de Terra, a German geologist in the International Geology Congress in Washington, DC.
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Teilhard participated in the 1935 YaleCambridge expedition in northern and central India with the geologist Helmut de Terra and Patterson, who veried their assumptions on Indian Paleolithic civilisations in Kashmir and the Salt Range Valley. He then made a short stay in Java, on the invitation of Professor Ralph van Koenigswald to the site of Java man. A second cranium, more complete, was discovered. This Dutch paleontologist had found (in 1933) a tooth in a Chinese apothecary shop in 1934 that he believed belonged to a giant tall ape that lived around half a million years ago. In 1937 Teilhard wrote Le Phnomne 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 [citation needed] arrival in that city, he was told that the award had been cancelled. 1939: Rome banned his work L nergie 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 Sourance (Spiritual Energy of Suering) (Complete Works, tome VII). 1941: de Chardin submitted to Rome his most important work, Le Phnomne Humain. 1947: Rome forbade him to write or teach on philosophical subjects. 1948: de Chardin 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 Phnomne 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. 1950: de Chardin was named to the French Academy of Sciences. 1955: de Chardin was forbidden by his Superiors to attend the International Congress of Paleontology. 1957: The Supreme Authority of the Holy Oce, in a decree dated 15 November 1957, forbade the works of de Chardin to be retained in libraries, including those
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of religious institutes. His books were not to be sold in Catholic bookshops and were not to be translated in other languages. 1958: In April of this year, all Jesuit publications in Spain (Razn y Fe, Sal Terrae,Estudios de Deusto) etc., carried a notice from the Spanish Provincial of the Jesuits, that de Chardins works had been published in Spanish without previous ecclesiastical examination and in deance of the decrees of the Holy See. 1962: A decree of the Holy Oce dated 30 June, under the authority of Pope John XXIII warned that ... it is obvious that in philosophical and theological matters, the said works (de Chardins) are replete with ambiguities or rather with serious errors which oend Catholic doctrine. That is why ... the Rev. Fathers of the Holy Oce urge all Ordinaries, Superiors, and Rectors ... to eectively 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 by his Cardinal Vicar) in a decree dated 30 September, required that Catholic booksellers in Rome should withdraw from circulation the works of de Chardin, 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 Chretiente, 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 15 March 1955, at the house of his diplomat cousin Jean de Lagarde, Teilhard told friends he hoped he [4] would die on Easter Sunday. In the Easter Sunday evening of 10 April 1955, during an animated discussion at the apartment of Rhoda de Terra, his personal assistant since 1949, the 73-year-old priest suered a heart attack; regaining [5] consciousness for a moment, he died a few minutes later. He was buried in the cemetery for the New York Province of the Jesuits at the Jesuit novitiate, St. [6] Andrew's-on-the-Hudson in Poughkeepsie, upstate New York.
Controversy with church ocials

In 1925, Teilhard was ordered by the Jesuit Superior General Wlodimir Ledchowski to leave his teaching position in France and to sign a statement withdrawing his controversial statements regarding the doctrine of original sin. Rather than leave the Jesuit order, Teilhard signed the statement and left for China. This was the rst of a series of condemnations by certain ecclesiastical ocials
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that would continue until after Teilhard's death. The climax of these condemnations was a 1962 monitum (reprimand) of the Holy Oce cautioning on Teilhard's works. From the monitum:
"The above-mentioned works abound in such ambiguities and indeed even serious errors, as to oend Catholic doctrine... For this reason, the most eminent and most revered Fathers of the Holy Oce exhort all Ordinaries as well as the superiors of Religious institutes, rectors of seminaries and presidents of universities, eectively to protect the minds, particularly of the youth, against the dangers presented [7] by the works of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin and of his followers".
However, it is noteworthy that the Holy Oce 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.
Rehabilitation and Incorporation into Catholic Theology

Shortly thereafter, prominent clerics began 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 nevertheless armed the orthodoxy of Teilhard de Chardin with a stinging rebuke to Teilhard's critics We need not concern ourselves with a number of detractors [8] of Teilhard, in whom emotion has blunted intelligence. Later that decade a bright young German theologian, Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) spoke glowingly of Teilhard's Christology in Ratzinger's famous Introduction to Christianity:
It must be regarded as an important service of Teilhard de Chardins 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 innitely small and the innitely big, there is a third order, which determines the real drift of evolution,
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namely, the order of the innitely complex. It is the real goal of the ascending process of growth or becoming; it reaches a rst 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 eort of an evolution aiming principally at the production of large molecules. The examination of the world by the dynamic criterion of complexity thus signies 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 aect in the slightest the necessity obliging us [9] to recognize in it a transcendent form of Personality.
Over the next several decades prominent theologians and Church leaders, including leading Cardinals, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI all wrote approvingly of Teilhard's ideas. In 1981, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, on behalf of Pope John Paul II, wrote on the front page of the Vatican newspaper, l'Osservatore Romano:
"What our contemporaries will undoubtedly remember, beyond the diculties of conception and deciencies 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 [10] culture, civilization, and progress.
Cardinal Avery Dulles, S.J. said in 2004:
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"In his own poetic style, the French Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin liked to meditate on the Eucharist as the rstfruits 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 identied the connection between the Eucharist and the nal glorication of the [11] cosmos."
Cardinal Christoph Schnborn wrote in 2007:
"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 scientic approach to the world can be brought together. ... These brief references to Teilhard cannot do justice to his eorts. The fascination which Teilhard de Chardin exercised for an entire generation stemmed from his radical manner of looking at [12] 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:
And so we can now say that the goal of worship and the goal of creation as a whole are one and the samedivinization, 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
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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 nally 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 [13] anticipates its goal and at the same time urges it on.
Teachings
In his posthumously published book, The Phenomenon of Man, Teilhard writes of the unfolding of the material cosmos, from primordial particles to the development of life, human beings and the noosphere, and nally 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 [14] the development of culture, primarily through the vehicle of education. 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 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 [15] There is no doubt that The Phenomenon of not come within this universal law." Man represents Teilhard's attempt at reconciling his religious faith with his [16] One particularly poignant observation academic interests as a paleontologist. in Teilhard's book entails the notion that evolution is becoming an increasingly [16] Teilhard points to the societal problems of isolation and optional process. marginalization as huge inhibitors of evolution, especially since evolution requires a unication of consciousness. He states that "no evolutionary future awaits [16] Teilhard argued that the anyone except in association with everyone else." 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
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termed "unanimization." Teilhard also states that "evolution is an ascent toward consciousness", giving encephalization as an example of early stages, and [16] which for therefore, signies a continuous upsurge toward the Omega Point, all intents and purposes, is God.
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 [16] it has not yet found a God it can adore.
Legacy
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar [17] of the Episcopal Church (USA) on April 10.
Scientic
"Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution" by Theodosius Dobzhansky draws upon Teilhard's insistence that evolutionary theory provides the core of how man understands his relationship to nature. Key researchers credit Teilhard for the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis that [citation needed] accounts for natural selection in the light of Mendelian genetics. George Gaylord Simpson named the most primitive and ancient genus of true primate, the Eocene genus Teilhardina. Evolutionary biologist Jeremy Grith described Teilhard as a "visionary" [18] philosopher and a contemporary "truth-sayer" or "prophet".
Arts and Culture

Teilhard and his work continue to inuence the arts and culture. Characters based on Teilhard appear in several novels, including Jean Telemond in Morris [19] (mentioned by name and quoted by Oskar West's The Shoes of the Fisherman Werner playing Fr. Telemond in the movie version of the novel) and Father [20] In Dan Simmons' Lankester Merrin in William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist. 198997 Hyperion Cantos, Teilhard de Chardin has been canonized a saint in the far future. His work inspires the anthropologist priest character, Paul Dur. When [21] Teilhard appears Dur becomes Pope, he takes Teilhard I as his regnal name. as a minor character in the play Fake by Eric Simonson, staged by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2009, involving a ctional solution to the infamous Piltdown Man hoax.
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References range from occasional quotationsan auto mechanic quotes Teilhard [22] to serving as the philosophical in Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly underpinning of the plot, as Teilhard's work does in Julian May's 198794 Galactic [23] Teilhard also plays a major role in Annie Dillard's 1999 For the Milieu Series. [24] Teilhard is mentioned by name and the Omega Point briey Time Being. [25] explained in Arthur C. Clarke's and Stephen Baxter's The Light of Other Days. The title of the short-story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor is a reference to Teilhard's work. The American novelist Don DeLillo's 2010 novel Point Omega borrows its title and some of its ideas from Teilhard de Chardin. Robert Wright, in his book Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, compares his own naturalistic thesis that biological and cultural evolution are directional and, possibly, purposeful, with Teilhard's ideas. Teilhard's work also inspired philosophical ruminations by Italian laureate architect Paolo Soleri, artworks such as French painter Alfred Manessier's [26] and American L'Orande de la terre ou Hommage Teilhard de Chardin sculptor Frederick Hart's acrylic sculpture The Divine Milieu: Homage to Teilhard [27] A sculpture of the Omega Point by Henry Setter, with a quote from de Chardin. Teilhard de Chardin, can be found at the entrance to the Roesch Library at the [28] Edmund Rubbra's 1968 Symphony No. 8 is titled University of Dayton. Hommage Teilhard de Chardin.
Bricks and mortar

Several college campuses honor Teilhard. A building at the University of Manchester is named after him, as are residence dormitories at Gonzaga University and Seattle University.
Bibliography
The dates in parentheses are the dates of rst 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 Phnomne Humain (1955), written 193840, scientic exposition of Teilhard's theory of evolution The Phenomenon of Man (1959), Harper Perennial 1976: ISBN 0-06-090495-X. Reprint 2008: ISBN 978-0-06-163265-5. The Human Phenomenon (1999), Brighton: Sussex Academic, 2003: ISBN 1-902210-30-1 Letters From a Traveler (1956; English translation 1962), written 192355
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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 192627, in which the author seeks to oer a way for everyday life, or the secular, to be divinised. The Divine Milieu (1960) Harper Perennial 2001: ISBN 0-06-093725-4 L'Avenir de l'Homme (1959) essays written 192052, on the evolution of consciousness (noosphere) The Future of Man (1964) Image 2004: ISBN 0-385-51072-1 Hymn of the Universe (1961; English translation 1965) Harper and Row: ISBN 0-06-131910-4, mystical/spiritual essays and thoughts written 191655 L'Energie Humaine (1962), essays written 193139, on morality and love Human Energy (1969) Harcort Brace Jovanovich ISBN 0-15-642300-6 L'Activation de l'Energie (1963), sequel to Human Energy, essays written 193955 but not planned for publication, about the universality and irreversibility of human action Activation of Energy (1970), Harvest/HBJ 2002: ISBN 0-15-602817-4 Je M'Explique (1966) Jean-Pierre Demoulin, editor ISBN 0-685-36593-X, "The Essential Teilhard" selected passages from his works Let Me Explain (1970) Harper and Row ISBN 0-06-061800-0, Collins/Fontana 1973: ISBN 0-00-623379-1 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 19141919, 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 scientic essays published in the French science journal Etudes. The Appearance of Man, Collins (1965) composed of mostly scientic writings published in the French science journal Etudes. Letters to Two Friends 19261952, Fontana (1968) composed of personal letters on varied subjects including his understanding of death. Letters to Lontine 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 signicance of Australopithecines". Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences (Mar 1952) 14 (5): 20810. PMID 14931535 (//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14931535). de Terra, H; de Chardin, PT; Paterson, TT (1936). "Joint geological and prehistoric studies of the Late Cenozoic in India". Science (6 March 1936) 83
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(2149): 233236. doi:10.1126/science.83.2149.233-a (http://dx.doi.org /10.1126%2Fscience.83.2149.233-a). PMID 17809311 (//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17809311).
See also
Edouard Le Roy Thomas Berry List of science and religion scholars List of Jesuit scientists List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics
References
1. ^ http://ncronline.org/news/pope-citesteilhardian-vision-cosmos-living-host 2. ^ "Teilhard and the Piltdown 'Hoax'" (http://www.clarku.edu/~piltdown /map_prim_suspects /teilhard_de_chardin/Chardin_defend /teilhardandpilthoax(lukas).html) 3. ^ 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. 4. ^ Smulders, Pieter Frans The design of Teilhard de Chardin: an essay in theological reection (http://www.google.com /search?hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i& cr=&safe=images&um=1&ie=UTF8&tbo=u&tbs=bks:1&source=og& q=%22Three%20days%20later %2C%20on%20Easter%20Sunday %2C%20he%20was%20quite%20sudd enly%22&sa=N&tab=wp& cad=cbv#sclient=psy&hl=en& lr=&tbs=bks%3A1& q=%22On+March+15%2C+1955%2C +he+told+friends+he+hoped+he+wo uld+die+on+Easter+Sunday%2C+the +feast+of+his+own+Messe+sur+le+ monde.%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=& gs_rfai=&pbx=1& fp=8652cbd0fdc5ba22) 1967 5. ^ Smulders, Pieter Frans The design of Teilhard de Chardin: an essay in theological reection (http://www.google.com /search?hl=en&num=10&lr=&ft=i& cr=&safe=images&um=1&ie=UTF8&tbo=u&tbs=bks:1&source=og& q=%22Three%20days%20later %2C%20on%20Easter%20Sunday %2C%20he%20was%20quite%20sudd enly%22&sa=N&tab=wp& cad=cbv#sclient=psy&hl=en& lr=&tbs=bks%3A1& q=%22In+the+afternoon%2C+at+the +house+of+friends%2C+he+was+fell ed+by+a+heart+seizure%3B+regaini ng+consciousness+for+a+moment%2 C+he+died+a+few+minutes+later%2 2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=& pbx=1&fp=8652cbd0fdc5ba22) 1967 6. ^ "Pierre Teilhard De Chardin" (http://www.ndagrave.com/cgi-bin /fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6725251). Find a Grave. Retrieved October 21, 2010. 7. ^ Warning Considering the Writings of Father Teilhard de Chardin (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine /arch/dechardin.txt), Sacred Congregation of the Holy Oce, June 30, 1962.
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8. ^ Cardinal Henri Cardinal de Lubac, S.J. The Religion of Teilhard de Chardin, Image Books (1968) 9. ^ Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal; Pope Benedict XVI; Benedict; J. R. Foster; Michael J. Miller (2010-06-04). Introduction To Christianity, 2nd Edition (Kindle Locations 2840-2865). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition. 10. ^ Cardinal Agostino Casaroli praises the work of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin to Cardinal Paul Poupard, then Rector of the Institut Catholique de Paris L'Osservatore Romano, June 10, 1981 @ TraditionInAction.org (http://www.traditioninaction.org /ProgressivistDoc /A_020_CasaroliTeilhard.htm) 11. ^ A Eucharistic Church: The Vision of John Paul II McGinley Lecture, University, November 10, 2004 12. ^ Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, Creation, Evolution, and a Rational Faith, Ignatian Press (2007) 13. ^ Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal; Pope Benedict XVI (2009-06-11). The Spirit of the Liturgy (Kindle Locations 260270). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition. 14. ^ "Teilhard de Chardin, Orthogenesis, and the Mechanism of Evolutionary Change" (http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=OoI4Bamf-9s) by Thomas F Glick (http://www.thomasfglick.com/). 15. ^ Teilhard de Chardin: "A Note on Progress" (http://www.religiononline.org /showchapter.asp?title=2287& C=2162) 16. ^ a b c d e Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man (New York: Harper and Row, 1959), 25075.
17. ^ Holy Women, Holy Men (Church Publishing Inc, 2010), pp. 320-321. http://books.google.com /books?id=2I6RmJ4JiuAC& printsec=frontcover& dq=holy+women+holy+men&hl=en& ei=agc9TYmRDIP78AbY1KSwCg& sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=bookpreview-link&resnum=1& ved=0CCwQuwUwAA#v=onepage& q=teilhard&f=false 18. ^ Grith, Jeremy (2013). Freedom Book 1 (http://www.worldtransformation.com /freedom-book1-we-couldnt-confrontintegrative-meaning/). Part 4:4B. WTM Publishing & Communications. ISBN 978-1-74129-011-0. Retrieved March 28, 2013. 19. ^ Moss, R.F. (Spring 1978). "Suering, sinful Catholics". The Antioch Review (Antioch Review) 36 (2): 170181. doi:10.2307/4638026 (http://dx.doi.org /10.2307%2F4638026). JSTOR 4638026 (//www.jstor.org/stable /4638026). 20. ^ "Bill Blatty on "The Exorcist" " (http://web.archive.org /web/20020123033633/http: //www.geocities.com/Hollywood /Lot/5160/blatty.html). www.geocities.com, retrieved from the Wayback machine. Archived from the original (http://web.archive.org /web/20091027135935/http: //www.geocities.com/Hollywood /Lot/5160/blatty.html) on 2002-01-23. Retrieved 2009-11-13. 21. ^ Simmons, Dan (1 February 1990). The Fall of Hyperion. Doubleday. p. 464. ISBN 978-0-385-26747-2. 22. ^ Dick, Philip K. (1991). A Scanner Darkly. Vintage. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-679-73665-3.
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23. ^ May, Julian (April 11, 1994). Jack the Bodiless. Random House Value Publishing. p. 287. ISBN 978-0-517-11644-9. 24. ^ Dillard, Annie (8 February 2000). For the Time Being. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-375-70347-8. 25. ^ Clarke, Arthur c. (2001). The Light of Other Days. Tom Doherty Associates, LLC. p. 331. ISBN 0-812-57640-3. 26. ^ "Liste des uvres de Manessier dans les muses de France Wikipdia" (http://fr.wikipedia.org /wiki/Liste_des_ %C5%93uvres_de_Manessier_dans_les _mus%C3%A9es_de_France). fr.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
27. ^ "The Divine Milieu by Frederick Hart" (http://www.jeanstephengalleries.com /hart-divine.html). www.jeanstephengalleries.com. Retrieved 2009-04-19. 28. ^ "UDQuickly Past Scribblings" (http://campus.udayton.edu /udq/scribblings/0708scribblings.html). campus.udayton.edu. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
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) 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] (http://www.maryknollsocietymall.org /description.cfm?ISBN=978-1-57075-1 77-6)(Orbis Books, 1996)
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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)
External links
Pro
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's books in the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator %3A%22Pierre%20Teilhard%20de%20Chardin%22) Chardin, Pierre Teilhard de The Phenomenon of Man (http://www.archive.org/details/phenomenon-of-man-pierre-teilhardde-chardin.pdf) Scanned book in the Internet Archive Chardin, Pierre Teilhard de The Phenomenon of Man in ePub (http://arthursbookshelf.com/Other-stu/Fenelon /The%20Phenomenon%20Of%20Man%20-%20Pierre%20Teilhard%20de%20 Chardin.epub), MOBI (http://arthursbookshelf.com/Other-stu/Fenelon /The%20Phenomenon%20Of%20Man%20-%20mobi.zip) and PDF (http://arthursbookshelf.com/Other-stu/Fenelon
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/The%20Phenomenon%20Of%20Man%20-%20Pierre%20Teilhard%20de%20 Chardin.pdf) formats (without illustrations) Teilhard de Chardin (http://teilhard.com/) (A site devoted to the ideas of Teilhard de Chardin) The Teilhard de Chardin Foundation (http://www.mnhn.fr/teilhard /indexE.html) The American Teilhard Association (http://www.teilharddechardin.org/) Teilhard de Chardin (http://tcreek1.jimdo.com) A personal website
Contra
Warning Regarding the Writings of Father Teilhard de Chardin (http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=3160) The Sacred Congregation of the Holy Oce, 1962 Medawar, Peter A review of The Phenomenon of Man (http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Medawar/phenomenon-of-man.html) Mind, N.S., 70 (1961) pp. 99106 McCarthy, John F. A review of Teilhardism and the New Religion by Wolfgang Smith (http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt25.html#II) 1989
Other
Works by or about Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (http://worldcat.org/identities /lccn-n79-32934) in libraries (WorldCat catalog) Web pages and timeline about the Piltdown forgery hosted by the British Geological Survey (http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology /geologyOfBritain/archives/piltdownMan/home.html) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org /w/index.php?title=Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin&oldid=603596649" Categories: 1881 births 1955 deaths 20th-century French philosophers 20th-century Roman Catholic priests Christian mystics French Christian theologians French Jesuits French paleontologists French religious writers Members of the French Academy of Sciences Ociers of the Lgion d'honneur People from Puy-de-Dme Roman Catholic clericscientists Roman Catholic theologians University of Paris alumni Villanova University alumni Cosmologists Theistic evolutionists This page was last modied on 10 April 2014 at 13:49. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the
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