Science, faith and eschatology in Teilhard de Chardin
AS CATHOLICISM and the sciences inhabited the twentieth century together, a literalistic reading of the Bible became increasingly inadequate to explain our origins or, importantly, our ultimate destiny.
AS CATHOLICISM and the sciences inhabited the twentieth century together, a literalistic reading of the Bible became increasingly inadequate to explain our origins or, importantly, our ultimate destiny. The defeat of Neo-Scholasticism by la nouvelle theologie and the ressourcement movement led to a revolution in Roman Catholic theological anthropology. There was a vacuum in our understanding of who we were and where we were going. A vacuum into which stepped many thinkers, few as influential as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881- 1955) a palaeontologist and Jesuit priest.
The current apocalyptic discourse and war footing of the major powers means that the early twenty-first century mirrors, unfortunately, the early twentieth-century. The existential crisis in the heart of young people also mirrors the existential crisis of the early twentieth, but, as I will show, it is an existential crisis that Teilhard still has a lot to contribute to. To achieve this, what follows will focus on Teilhard’s contribution of a new mode of language, with particular emphasis on his use of a convergent science and faith language, and its relevance to modern discourse.
* Full article available in printed copies.
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Paudie Holly
is completing his doctorate on Henri de Lubac, the chief interpreter of Teilhard de Chardin, in the TCD School of Religion, Theology and Peace Studies.