In 1962, I purchased and carefully read The Phenomenon of Man, the magnum opus of French paleontologist and Jesuit theologian Teilhard de Chardin, who was born 145 years ago on May 1.* Teilhard died on Easter Sunday in April 1955, the month before I graduated from high school. It was not until ’62, though, that I heard of, and was challenged by, him for the first time.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was his full legal
name when he was born in 1881. “Teilhard” was the core family surname and “de
Chardin” was the inherited second surname from his mother’s noble line. The
double surname originated in 1841, when Pierre‑Cirice Teilhard (his
grandfather) married Victoire Barron de Chardin.
Although ordained as a Jesuit priest, Teilhard
became a paleontologist (a scientist who studies past life as known from fossil
remains). His research, coupled with his belief in the Creator God, led him to
an evolutionary worldview that culminates at the “Omega Point,” the grand
fulfillment of creation.
Here is an introduction to three contemporary
scholars who were significantly influenced by Teilhard.
Brian Swimme
(b. 1950) is an American mathematical and evolutionary cosmologist who
teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He
grew up in a Catholic tradition, which clearly impressed him, and as one
reviewer says, there a strong "incense scent of religiosity" to his
work. But he does not publicly claim to be a Christian now.
Interestingly, though, Swimme has adopted Teilhard’s thinking
that everything in existence has both a physical and a spiritual dimension, and
he believes the universe is evolving with a telos (goal or purpose) of beauty.
Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation has promoted his ideas,
along with other Teilhard scholars who are clearly Christians.
Journey of the Universe (2011) was co-written by
Swimme, and he is the personable narrator of that beautifully done film, which clearly
show his affinity with Teilhard. It portrays well the sense of evolution as
a sacred, universe‑wide process moving toward greater complexity and
consciousness (which is what Swimme terms beauty).
Watching Swimme’s movie filled me with a sense of the Creator's awesomeness and the universe's splendor. I highly recommend the film,
which is currently available on various streaming platforms.
Simon Conway
Morris (b. 1951), a groundbreaking paleontologist at the University
of Cambridge, was awarded the 2026 Templeton Prize last week (on April 21). It
is valued at over $1.4 million and one of the world’s largest individual
awards.**
According to Religion News Service, when he was about seven, Simon’s
mother “gave him an album of stamps depicting various pre-historic animals and
dinosaurs. This prompted him to go fossil-hunting and inspired a lifelong
fascination with the evolution of life.”
Morris has spoken publicly about coming to Christian faith and
rejecting materialism. He candidly states that he is “convinced of the truth of
the Gospels.” Looking at how the universe has evolved, Taylor says he believes “God
is the agent of creation” and is “happy to be known as a Christian.”
Ilia Delio is a Franciscan Sister and American theologian
specializing in the intersection of science and religion. She has been
associated with Rohr’s Center since 2013, and he explicitly identifies her as
an expert on Teilhard. She is said to have “a widely appreciated gift for
making Teilhard’s brilliant but dense writings accessible.”
Delio’s Christ in Evolution (2008) is the book most scholars
point to as her most sustained and direct engagement with Teilhard. In it, she
works through his positing of Christ as the future fullness of the whole
evolutionary process, the Omega Point, where the individual and collective
adventure of humanity finds its fulfillment.
That book established Delio’s reputation as Teilhard’s premier
contemporary interpreter and led to her being called “the most prolific
Teilhard interpreter in the English-speaking world today.”
I close with words widely attributed to Teilhard: “Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We
are quite naturally impatient to reach the end,” but “it might take a very long
time.”
Note: I am
grateful to my friend Claude (Anthropic’s AI) for research and writing assistance in the
preparation of this article.]
_____
* Teilhard’s book was first published under the title Le Phénomene
Humain in 1955, and the first English translation was issued in 1959. The
title of a new translation, published in 1999, is The Human Phenomenon (the
title that the first English translation should have had).
** The award
was established in 1972 by John Templeton (1912~2008), a Presbyterian Christian
from Tennessee who became a global investor and philanthropist.
