Teilhard and the Future of Humanity

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

c h a p t e r 6 Teilhard, Globalization, and the Future of Humanity Michel Camdessus 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 accomplish this task. It is as a man of this system that I wish to engage in this reflection, but I would like to first share some passages from Teilhard de Chardin that have, I dare say, accompanied me and directed me on my path of maturation. Then I will offer my own understanding of globalization, and we will thus be able to discern how we might proceed in a Teilhardian light—that is to say, from a more mastered globalization process toward the future of humanity. 1. Teilhard de Chardin: A Leap How are we to unify our lives, bringing together faith and action? What will be the results of our actions? Will those results pass 71 72 Michel Camdessus with time or will they contribute to the accomplishment of creation , to its restoration in a new, long-awaited and hoped for Earth? These were my questions, as well as those of my generation . Teilhard, in answering them, revealed to us an image of Christian perfection of the human effort. In rereading the words below, I understand better how their lyricism and fervor touched me so profoundly. In virtue of a wonderfully augmenting strength included in things, every reality that is reached and surpassed brings us both to the discovery and the search of an ideal of superior spiritual quality. For he who adequately casts his sail to the wind of the earth, a current is made manifest that forces him towards the high seas. The more a man desires and thus acts nobly, the more he becomes avidly interested in pursuing large and sublime objects. The only family, the only country, the only re-numerating face of his action is no longer sufficient. He will need to create general organizations, mark out new paths, sustain new causes, discover new truths, and nourish and defend a new ideal. As a result, little by little, the earth’s laborer no longer belongs to himself. Little by little, the great wind of the universe, insinuated in him by the fissure of a humble but faithful action, has expanded, elevated, and carried him. For the Christian, assuming he knows how to make use of the resources of his faith, these effects attain their paroxysm and culmination. . . . He will need to create general organizations.1 Following are his writings on the divinization of actions and passivities. It’s the first, actions, rather than the second that fascinates one at twenty years of age, though the divinization of all passivities is just as important a concept. ‘‘Passivities’’ has to do with all those forms of subjection and diminution that assail us, and that without pause ‘‘painfully interfere with our tendencies, that broach or reroute our journey towards the plus-être, [and] that reduce our real or apparent developmental capacities.’’2 We know well that the more we seek to expand our action to a more 73 Teilhard, Globalization, and the Future of Humanity ample, and especially universal, horizon, the more we encounter such passivities. In a life of faith, these passivities can, and indeed are, converted into positive and precious contributions leading to the fulfillment of creation. But when we are twenty years old, passivities are not what seize us, for amongst the three categories of human beings presented in Teilhard’s ‘‘Reflections on Happiness ’’ (the tired, the joyous, and the ardent), it’s the option of the ardent that we choose: Those for whom to live is an ascension, a discovery. We can humor these men, treat them as being naı̈ve, or find them bothersome . But in the meantime it is they who made us, and it is from them that the Earth of tomorrow will come.3 Teilhard did not influence me through his prestigious work as a scientist, for it was outside my area of study; rather, it was his faith in God, in humanity, and the world that touched me. His words were in symphonic accord with those of Mounier and Perroux , inviting engagement and interior freedom—engagement because...