Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Sa vie, son oeuvre, sa réflexion (review)

During the last decade fewer works have been published on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin than in the period following his death in 1955, despite the great popularity of his writings during the latter part of the twentieth century. It is therefore especially gratifying to see a new title on Teilhard in print. Patrice Boudignon's large volume of fifteen chapters is a new biography, but also a history of Teilhard de Chardin's works and thought. For those less familiar with the French Catholic thinker, this well-researched, impressive study provides helpful guidance and direction. For seasoned Teilhard scholars with an intimate knowledge of the scientific achievements, spiritual vision, and theological thinking of this great twentieth-century figure, as well as acquainted with the rich secondary literature about him, there is little here that adds to the record or the different interpretations offered on his œuvre by other writers.

The author of this biography holds degrees in law, political science, and the history of religions. Inspired by Teilhard's works, especially his large and still partly unpublished correspondence, Boudignon is currently undertaking a doctorate pertaining to this material, also using it, not surprisingly, as the major source for this book. The main focus of the work is Teilhard's recurring theme of global humanity's forward movement toward greater unity—a planetary process of unification whose dynamic we experience every day. From among the large corpus of existing letters to family, friends, other Jesuits, and scientific colleagues, those to Teilhard's female friends take pride of place here. Specially singled out in "the gallery of female friendships" (p. 147) are Teilhard's letters to Ida Treat, Lucile Swan, and Rhoda de Terra, here discussed in much greater detail than in other studies. This emphasis is a particular strength of the book and provides readers with new insights, although one also wonders whether the author sometimes reads too much into some of these letters. It is puzzling that the importance of Teilhard's cousin Marguérite, his closest friend and confidante during World War I, and certainly his "intellectual midwife,"remains rather marginalized here, nor are the important "Lettres Intimes" to his fellow Jesuits and lifelong friends much highlighted in the discussion.

The formative war years are dealt with rather summarily, as are the preceding years of study. Yet these years had a deep influence on Teilhard's dynamic understanding of evolution, humanity, the emergence of the noos-phere, and that of the cosmic Christ. However, a clearly articulated, and to some extent justified, critique concerns what appears to be Teilhard's lack of strongly expressed feelings concerning the suffering of the victims of this disastrous world war. It is a critique well taken, but would need to be further contextualized and related to what he wrote in other essays about suffering.

Most chapters include detailed discussions of one or two selected essays or books by Teilhard based on extensive, and occasionally rather long, quotations from the original texts, presented mostly in the chronological order in which they were written. From the foundational Writings in Time of War "Cosmic Life" (1916) and "Nostalgia for the Front" (1917) are given special attention, but none of the war essays that have a bearing on understanding Teilhard's mystical spirituality have been singled out for comment. Teilhard's famous "Note on Some Possible Historical Representations of Original Sin" (1922), which caused trouble for him with the church authorities in Rome, is discussed in some detail, as are the important works "The Mass on the World" (1923), "The Divine Milieu " (1927), "The Human Phenomenon" (1938–40) and the later "Man's Place in Nature" (1949). Several outstanding essays describing Teilhard's great vision in detail are also included in the discussion, such as "How I Believe" (1934);"My Fundamental Vision" (1948); and the key text for retracing Teilhard's spiritual development, "The Heart...