Teilhard and the Future of Humanity

Thierry Meynard

Publication Year: 2006

Fifty years after his death, the thought of the French scientist and Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) continues to inspire new ways of understanding humanity's future. Trained as a paleontologist and philosopher, Teilhard was an innovative synthesizer of science and religion, developing an idea of evolution as an unfolding of material and mental worlds into an integrated, holistic universe at what he called the Omega Point. His books, such as the bestselling The Phenomenon of Man, have influenced generations of ecologists, environmentalists, planners, and others concerned with the fate of the earth.This book brings together original essays by leading experts who reflect on Teilhard's legacy for today's globalized world. They explore such topics as: the idea of God and the person; quantum reality and Teilhard's vision; spiritual resources for the future; politics and economics; and a charter for co-evolution.

Published by: Fordham University Press

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Title Page, Copyright Page

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pp. v-vi

Preface

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pp. vii-xii

Fifty years after the death of the French Jesuit and scientist Teilhard de Chardin, what can be said today about his thought? At first glance, Teilhard’s optimism about the future of humanity does not match the reality and the trends of our present world...

Teilhard and Human Spirit

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pp. 1-2

Chapter 1: Feeding the Zest for Life: Spiritual Energy Resources for the Future of Humanity

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pp. 3-19

Reflections on the future of humankind, and its further social, cultural and spiritual development, feature prominently in the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. His thoughts on these matters can be a splendid resource for our contemporary efforts to...

Chapter 2: God and the Human Future

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pp. 20-28

Teilhard was in the midst of his Jesuit and scientific studies when, in late December of 1914, he was drafted into the French army. He was given three weeks of training and sent to the front lines of the First World War, as a stretcher-bearer. During the previous...

Chapter 3: The Personalization of the Universe; or, The Era of the Person

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pp. 29-40

Teilard de Chardin did not use the word ‘‘globalization’’ when he wrote about the future of humanity. His vision is neither a utilitarian nor a quietist one, based on renunciation, nor is it full of an exacerbated form of piety. It is centered on a Christic perspective...

Teilhard and Ecology

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pp. 41-42

Chapter 4: Zest for Life: Teilhard’s Cosmological Vision

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pp. 43-55

The multiple and interconnected human and environmental crises we face are of considerable urgency. As the world becomes warmer, as hurricanes increase, as species become extinct, as air and water pollution spreads, and as resource wars heat up, there...

Chapter 5: Teilhard’s Vision and the Earth Charter

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pp. 56-68

I first encountered the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin as a divinity student in the classroom of the Christian theologian Daniel Day Williams, at Union Theological Seminary in New York, in the early 1960s. Williams’ theology drew heavily on the work...

Teilhard and Economic Globalization

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pp. 69-70

Chapter 6: Teilhard, Globalization, and the Future of Humanity

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pp. 71-88

Globalization and the future of humanity: The second of these terms is Teilhardian; the first is not. Between these two there is an initiative to be brought forth, and the United Nations Organization is at the heart of the system that humanity has made to...

Chapter 7: Teilhard and Globalization

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pp. 89-106

The word is recent; the reality is ancient. The use of the word globalization in the sense that we mean it today apparently derives from the definition given by an American economist, Theodore Levitt, in an article published in 1983: multiplication of trade...

Teilhard and Science

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pp. 107-108

Chapter 8: The Emergence of Consciousness in Biological Evolution and Quantum Reality

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pp. 109-134

Twentieth-century physics has shown that reality is different from what we had thought. At the foundation of ordinary things, elementary particles are not as real as the things that they form, but they are different in essence. Physical reality is not what it looks...

Chapter 9: The Role of Science in Contemporary China and according to Teilhard

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pp. 135-170

For the past century, knowledge has been classified for the most part along Western lines in China. Thus, notions of science (kexue), philosophy (zhengzhi), and religion (zongjiao), were neologisms introduced in China at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. The introduction of these...

E-ISBN-13: 9780823248513
Print-ISBN-13: 9780823226900
Print-ISBN-10: 0823226905

Page Count: 184
Publication Year: 2006