Read complete books and articles on: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Teilhard De Chardin, Pierre - pyĕr tāyärˈ də shärdăNˈ, 1881–1955, French paleontologist and philosopher. He entered (1899) the Jesuit order, was ordained (1911), and received a doctorate in paleontology from the Sorbonne (1922). He lectured (1920–23) at the Institut Catholique in Paris. After visiting China (1923–24), he resumed teaching at the Institut, but in 1926 he was forced by his superiors to abandon teaching and return to China because of his controversial attempts to reconcile the traditional view of original sin with his concept of evolution; at that time it was also decided that his publications should be limited to purely scientific material, a limitation that continued throughout his lifetime. Shortly after his return to China, Teilhard was named adviser to the National Geological Survey, and in that capacity he collaborated on research that resulted in the discovery (1929) of Peking man (see Homo erectus). While in China (1926–46) he also completed the manuscript of The Phenomenon of Man (published posthumously, 1955; tr. 1959), in which he outlined his concept of cosmic evolution and his conviction that belief in evolution does not entail a rejection of Christianity. Evolution he saw to be a process involving all matter, not just biological material, the cosmos undergoing successively more complex changes that would lead ultimately to "Omega Point," which has been variously interpreted as the integration of all personal consciousness and as the second coming of Christ. Teilhard's evolutionism earned him the distrust of his religious superiors, while his religious mysticism made scientific circles suspicious; but despite much opposition—or perhaps because of it—there was an unusually broad popular response to his work after its posthumous publication. The interest may be explained by his boldly anthropocentric, and somewhat mystical, understanding of the cosmos: humanity for him is the axis of the cosmic flow, the key of the universe. Teilhard de Chardin's other works (all published posthumously) include Letters from a Traveller (1956, tr. 1962), The Divine Milieu (1957, tr. 1960), The Future of Man (1959, tr. 1964), Human Energy (1962, tr. 1969), Activation of Energy (1963, tr. 1971), and Hymn of the Universe (1964, tr. 1965).

See biographies by C. Cuénot (tr. 1965), R. Speaight (1968), and M. and E. Lukas (1981); studies by M. H. Murray (1966), R. Faricy (1967), R. G. North (1967), B. Delfgaauw (1969), P. Hefner (1970), H. J. Birx (1972), T. M. King (1981), E. O. Dodson (1984), W. Smith (1988).

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13 of the Best Books and Articles on: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Teilhard de Chardin's Theology of the Christian in the World » Read Now
by Robert L. Faricy. 235 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library
2.

Teilhard's Vision of the Past: The Making of a Method » Read Now
by Robert J. S. J. O'Connell. 206 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...esp. pp. 108-37; and his "Pierre Teilhard de Chardin as a Scientist," in Teilhard...McCarthy more recent Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: A Comprehensive Bibliography...of age...
3.

The Anthropic Cosmological Principle ("Teilhard de Chardin: Mystic, Paleontologist and Teleologist" begins on p. 195) » Read Now
by John D. Barrow, Frank J. Tipler. 716 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library

Ever since Copernicus, scientists have continually adjusted their view of human nature, moving it further and further from its ancient position at the center of Creation. But in recent years, a startling new concept has evolved that places it more firmly than ever in a special position. Known as the...
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Ever since Copernicus, scientists have continually adjusted their view of human nature, moving it further and further from its ancient position at the center of Creation. But in recent years, a startling new concept has evolved that places it more firmly than ever in a special position. Known as the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, this collection of ideas holds that the existence of intelligent observers determines the fundamental structure of the Universe. In its most radical version, the Anthropic Principle asserts that "intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the Universe, and once it comes into existence, it will never die out." This wide-ranging and detailed book explores the many ramifications of the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, covering the whole spectrum of human inquiry from Aristotle to Z bosons. Bringing a unique combination of skills and knowledge to the subject, John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler--two of the world's leading cosmologists--cover the definition and nature of life, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and the interpretation of the quantum theory in relation to the existence of observers. The book will be of vital interest to philosophers, theologians, mathematicians, scientists, and historians, as well as to anyone concerned with the connection between the vastness of the universe of stars and galaxies and the existence of life within it on a small planet out in the suburbs of the Milky Way.
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4.

Studies in Christian Existentialism (Chap. 13 "The Natural Theology of Teilhard de Chardin") » Read Now
by John Macquarrie. 280 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library
5.

Radical Pragmatism: An Alternative (Chap. 6 "Transcendence and Immanence: An Alternative") » Read Now
by Robert J. Roth. 168 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

Robert Roth, among the first few Catholics to write favorably, even if critically, about American pragmatism, presents here a creative piece of comparative philosophy in which he achieves a long-term goal of attempting a reconciliation between pragmatism and a classical spiritual and religious...
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Robert Roth, among the first few Catholics to write favorably, even if critically, about American pragmatism, presents here a creative piece of comparative philosophy in which he achieves a long-term goal of attempting a reconciliation between pragmatism and a classical spiritual and religious perspective. The title, Radical Pragmatism, is an adaptation of William James's "radical empiricism". James had argued that the classical empiricists, Locke and Hume, did not go far enough in their account of experience. They missed some of its most important aspects, namely, connections and relations, and as a result they were left with discrete sense data and sense objects.
In a similar vein, Roth maintains that the pragmatists themselves have not been radical enough in developing the full implications of their own tradition. In chapters on Peirce, James, and Dewey, Roth makes the Fast full-scale attempt to show that the pragmatic notion of experience can be extended to include a classical spiritual andreligious perspective in a theory of knowledge, morality, God, religion, and person.
Radical Pragmatism also discuses the thought of the Jesuit priest and anthropologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, showing how Teilhard from an evolutionary standpoint addressed the problem, long considered by the pragmatists, of bringing religion and science into harmony. Teilhard's thesis, as espoused by Roth, is that one can be deeply religious in a traditional sense and still take seriously the importance of science and life in the world; thus giving rise to a more fully developed person.
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6.

Toward a Theology of Nature: Essays on Science and Faith ("Beyond Spiritual Subjectivism: Tillich and Teilhard" begins on p. 128) » Read Now
by Wolfhart Pannenberg, Ted Peters. 170 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Systematic theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg, basing his discussion on more than three decades of dialogue between theologians and scientists, here poses theological questions to natural scientists that illuminate his personal position on issues dealing with theology and the natural sciences...
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Systematic theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg, basing his discussion on more than three decades of dialogue between theologians and scientists, here poses theological questions to natural scientists that illuminate his personal position on issues dealing with theology and the natural sciences, especially physics.
Pannenberg says the scientific view of nature is incomplete and challenges scientists to incorporate the idea of God into their picture of nature. First he provides a commentary and critique of groundbreaking insights of post-World War II philosophers of science and offers insight on the sociology of knowledge, which open conversation between theologians and scientists. Then he presents theology as the "science of God," showing that the world we live in is "a creature of a creating God."
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7.

The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science (Chap. 1 "The Phenomenon of Man") » Read Now
by Peter Medawar. 236 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Sir Peter Medawar was not only a Nobel prize-winning immunologist but also a wonderful writer about science and scientists. Described by the Washington Post as a "genuinely brilliant popularizer" of science, his essays are remarkable for their clarity and wit. This entertaining selection presents...
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Sir Peter Medawar was not only a Nobel prize-winning immunologist but also a wonderful writer about science and scientists. Described by the Washington Post as a "genuinely brilliant popularizer" of science, his essays are remarkable for their clarity and wit. This entertaining selection presents the very best of his writing with a new Foreword by Stephen Jay Gould, one of his greatest admirers. The wide range of subjects include Howard Florey and penicillin, J. B.S. Haldane, whom he describes as a "with-knobs-on variant of us all," and, in the title essay, scientific fraud involving laboratory mice. There is Medawar's defence of James Watson against the storm of criticism that greeted the publication of The Double Helix. A merciless debunker of myths, he reveals the nonsense to be discovered in psychoanalytic interpretations of Darwin's illness and launches devastating attacks on Arthur Koestler, IQ psychologists, and, most notably, Teilhard de Chardin. He raises questions about the nature of scientific endeavour--he famously defined science as the art of the soluble--and a common theme is his desire to communicate the importance of science to the widest possible audience.
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8.

Toward a Phenomenological Rhetoric: Writing, Profession, and Altruism (Chap. 4 "Profession: Embodying Truth in Self-Expression") » Read Now
by Barbara Couture. 246 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Education, Entire Library

Current rhetorical and critical theory for the most part separates writing from consciousness and presumes relative truth to be the only possible expressive goal for rhetoric. These presumptions are reflected in our tradition of persuasive rhetoric, which values writing that successfully argues one...
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Current rhetorical and critical theory for the most part separates writing from consciousness and presumes relative truth to be the only possible expressive goal for rhetoric. These presumptions are reflected in our tradition of persuasive rhetoric, which values writing that successfully argues one person's belief at the expense of another's. Barbara Couture presents a case for a phenomenological rhetoric, one that values and respects consciousness and selfhood and that restores to rhetoric the possibility of seeking an all-embracing truth through pacific and cooperative interaction.
Couture discusses the premises on which current interpretive theory has supported relative truth as the philosophical grounding for rhetoric, premises, she argues, that have led to constraints on our notion of truth that divorce it from human experience. She then shows how phenomenological philosophy might guide the theory and practice of rhetoric, reanimating its role in the human enterprise of seeking a shared truth. She proposes profession and altruism as two guiding metaphors for the phenomenological activity of "truth-seeking through interaction".
Among the contemporary rhetoricians and philosophers who influence Couture are Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Martin Buber, Charles Altieri, Charles Taylor, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Jurgen Habermas.
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9.

Twentieth-Century Religious Thought: The Frontiers of Philosophy and Theology, 1900-1960 (Chap. 82 "Realist Metaphysics in Theological and Religious Writers -- W. Temple, L. S. Thornton, P. Teilhard de Chardin") » Read Now
by John Macquarrie. 418 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library

...W. Temple, L. S. Thornton, P. Teilhard de Chardin 269 83. 83. Realism...of Neo-Thomism. D. J. Mercier, M. de Wulf, P. Coffey 280...of a neutral commentator, Guido de...
10.

From Silence to Vindication: Teilhard de Chardin & The Holy Office, in Commonweal » Read Now
by Robert Nugent. 3 pgs.

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...superior to a meeting in Lyon, France. The priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, had earned his doctorate at the Sorbonne two years...Lamennais, Darwin, Marx, Freud, and more...
11.

Christian Mystics: Their Lives and Legacies throughout the Ages ("Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)" begins on p. 234) » Read Now
by Ursula King. 282 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

Ursula Kingâ¬"s Christian Mystics tells the story of sixty men and women whose mystical devotion to God transformed the times in which they lived and still affects our present-day search for spiritual meaning. Moving from key figures of the early Christian age to the great mystics of modern times...
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Ursula Kingâ¬"s Christian Mystics tells the story of sixty men and women whose mystical devotion to God transformed the times in which they lived and still affects our present-day search for spiritual meaning. Moving from key figures of the early Christian age to the great mystics of modern times, special emphasis is given to the great high points of mysticism in the medieval, early modern and Eastern Orthodox traditions. The lives of visionaries, including Clement of Alexandria, Saint Bonaventure, Blaise Pascal and Simone Weil are studied in detail. It reveals the richly diverse expressions that mystical experience has found during two thousand years of Christian history and shows how it underpins Christian ritual and doctrine as a source of spiritual inspiration for all believers.Beautifully illustrated and written by a prominent name in the British academic world, this significant text has received high acclaim and is the only book to feature biographies of key mystics.
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12.

The Greening of Protestant Thought (Discussion of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin begins on p. 109) » Read Now
by Robert Booth Fowler. 244 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library
13.

God after Darwin: A Theology of Evolution ("Chap. 6 "A God for Evolution") » Read Now
by John F. Haught. 221 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

In God After Darwin, Haught argues that the ongoing debate between Darwinian evolutionists and Christian apologists is fundamentally misdirected: both sides persist in focusing upon an explanation of underlying design and order in the universe.