View source for Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

{{Short description|French philosopher and Jesuit priest (1881–1955)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox academic
|honorific_prefix  = [[The Reverend]]
|name              = Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
|honorific_suffix  = [[Society of Jesus|S.J.]]
|image             = TeilhardP 1955a.jpg
|caption           = 
|birth_date        = {{Birth date|1881|5|1|df=y}}
|birth_place       = [[Orcines, Puy-de-Dôme]], France
|death_date        = {{Death date and age|1955|4|10|1881|5|1|df=y}}
|death_place       = New York City, U.S.
|alma_mater        = [[University of Paris]]
|doctoral_advisor  = 
|doctoral_students = 
|notable_works     = {{unbulleted list | ''[[The Phenomenon of Man]]'' (1955) | ''The Divine Milieu'' (1957)}}
|discipline        = [[Western philosophy]]
|era               = [[20th-century philosophy]]
|school_tradition  = {{unbulleted list | [[Christian philosophy]] }}
|main_interests    = {{hlist | [[Philosophy of biology]] | [[philosophy of religion]]}}
|influences        = {{hlist | [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] | [[John the Evangelist|John]] | [[Origen]] | | [[Ignatius of Loyola|Ignatius]] | [[John of the Cross]]<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2005/03/28/life-pierre-teilhard-de-chardin-sj-smiling-scientist|title=The life of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., the smiling scientist|author=Thomas M. King|date=March 28, 2005 |website=[[America (magazine)|America]]}}</ref> | | | [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]] | [[Henri Bergson]] | [[Édouard Le Roy]] }}
|influenced        = {{hlist | [[Henri de Lubac|De Lubac]] |[[Thomas Berry|Berry]] | [[Julian Huxley|Huxley]] | [[Theodosius Dobzhansky|Dobzhansky]] | [[Pope Benedict XVI]] | [[Pope Francis]] | [[Frank Tipler|Tipler]] | [[Marshall McLuhan|McLuhan]] | [[K. H. Ting|Ting]] | [[Brian Swimme|Swimme]] | [[John Perry Barlow|Barlow]]}}
|notable_ideas     = {{hlist | [[Omega Point]] | [[Noosphere]]}}
}}

'''Pierre Teilhard de Chardin''', [[Jesuit|S.J.]], ({{IPA|fr|pjɛʁ tɛjaʁ də ʃaʁdɛ̃|lang|GT Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.ogg}}; 1 May 1881 – 10 April 1955) was a French [[Jesuit]], Catholic priest, scientist, paleontologist, philosopher, mystic, and teacher. Teilhard de Chardin investigated the theory of evolution from a perspective influenced by [[Henri Bergson]] and Christian mysticism, writing multiple scientific and religious works on the subject. His mainstream scientific achievements include his palaeontological research in China, taking part in the discovery of the significant [[Peking Man]] fossils from the [[Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site|Zhoukoudian cave complex]] near Beijing. His more speculative ideas, sometimes criticized as [[pseudoscientific]], have included a [[vitalist]] conception of the [[Omega Point]]. Along with [[Vladimir Vernadsky]], he contributed to the development of the concept of the [[noosphere]].

In 1962, the [[Holy Office]] issued a warning regarding Teilhard's works, alleging ambiguities and doctrinal errors without specifying them. Some eminent Catholic figures, including [[Pope Benedict XVI]] and [[Pope Francis]], have made positive comments on some of his ideas since. The response to his writings by scientists has been divided. 

Teilhard served in [[World War I]] as a stretcher-bearer. He received several citations, and was awarded the [[Médaille militaire]] and the [[Légion d'honneur|Legion of Honor]], the highest French [[order of merit]], both military and civil.

==Life==

===Early years===
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born in the Château of Sarcenat, [[Orcines]], about 2.5 miles north-west of [[Clermont-Ferrand]], [[Auvergne]], [[French Third Republic]], on 1 May 1881, as the fourth of eleven children of librarian Emmanuel Teilhard de Chardin (1844–1932) and Berthe-Adèle, née de Dompierre d'Hornoys of [[Picardy]]. His mother was a great-grandniece of the philosopher [[Voltaire]]. He inherited the double surname from his father, who was descended on the Teilhard side from an ancient family of magistrates from [[Auvergne]] originating in [[Murat, Cantal]], ennobled under [[Louis XVIII]].<ref>Paul Marichal, "Emmanuel Teilhard de Chardin (1844-1932)", ''Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes'' 93 (1932), 416f.
Emmanuel Teilhard de Chardin was the son of Pierre-Cirice Teilhard and of Victoire Teilhard née Barron de Chardin.
The grandfather of Pierre-Cirice, Pierre Teilhard, was granted a letter of confirmation of nobility by Louis XVIII in 1816.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aczel |first=Amir |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4h3VQO20_Q0C&pg=PT58 |title=The Jesuit and the Skull |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4406-3735-3 |page=58 |author-link=Amir Aczel}}</ref>

His father, a graduate of the [[École Nationale des Chartes]], served as a regional librarian and was a keen [[naturalist]] with a strong interest in natural science. He collected rocks, insects and plants and encouraged nature studies in the family. Pierre Teilhard's [[spirituality]] was awakened by his mother. When he was twelve, he went to the [[Notre Dame de Mongré High School|Jesuit college of Mongré]] in [[Villefranche-sur-Saône]], where he completed the [[Baccalauréat]] in [[philosophy]] and [[mathematics]]. In 1899, he entered the Jesuit novitiate in [[Aix-en-Provence]].<ref name="Fides">{{Cite book |last=Teilhard de Chardin |first=Pierre |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qrLD9tj8WUEC |title=L'expérience de Dieu avec Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |date=2001 |publisher=Les Editions Fides |isbn=978-2-7621-2348-7 |language=fr}}</ref> In October 1900, he began his junior studies at the Collégiale Saint-Michel de Laval. On 25 March 1901, he made his first vows. In 1902, Teilhard completed a licentiate in literature at the [[University of Caen Normandy|University of Caen]].{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

In 1901 and 1902, due to an anti-clerical movement in the French Republic, the government banned the Jesuits and other religious orders from France. This forced the Jesuits to go into exile on the island of [[Jersey]] in the United Kingdom. While there, his brother and sister in France died of illnesses and another sister was incapacitated by illness. The unexpected losses of his siblings at young ages caused Teilhard to plan to discontinue his Jesuit studies in science, and change to studying theology. He wrote that he changed his mind after his Jesuit novice master encouraged him to follow science as a legitimate way to God.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Formative Years 1899 - 1914 |url=http://tcreek1.jimdofree.com/2-the-formative-years/ |access-date=2023-12-24 |website=Teilhard de Chardin |language=en-US}}</ref> Due to his strength in science subjects, he was despatched to teach physics and chemistry at the [[Collège de la Sainte Famille]] in [[Cairo]], [[Khedivate of Egypt]] from 1905 until 1908. From there he wrote in a letter: "[I]t is the dazzling of the East foreseen and drunk greedily ... in its lights, its vegetation, its fauna and its deserts."<ref>''Letters from Egypt'' (1905–1908)&nbsp;— Éditions Aubier</ref>

For the next four years he was a [[Jesuit|Scholastic]] at [[Ore Place]] in [[Hastings, East Sussex]] where he acquired his theological formation.<ref name="Fides" /> There he synthesized his scientific, philosophical and theological knowledge in the light of [[evolution]]. At that time he read ''[[Creative Evolution (book)|Creative Evolution]]'' by [[Henri Bergson]], about which he wrote that "the only effect that brilliant book had upon me was to provide fuel at just the right moment, and very briefly, for a fire that was already consuming my heart and mind."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Teilhard de Chardin |first=Pierre |title=The Heart of Matter |date=1979 |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |editor-last=Hague |editor-first=René |location=New York |page=25 |language=en-us}}</ref>  Bergson was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of [[analytic philosophy]] and [[continental philosophy]]. His ideas were influential on Teilhard's views on matter, life, and energy. On 24 August 1911, aged 30, Teilhard was [[Catholic ordination|ordained]] a priest.<ref name="Fides" />

In the ensuing years, Bergson’s protege, the mathematician and philosopher [[Édouard Le Roy]], was appointed successor to Bergson at the College de France. In 1921, Le Roy and Teilhard became friends and met weekly for long discussions. Teilhard wrote: "I loved him like a father, and owed him a very great debt . . . he gave me confidence, enlarged my mind, and served as a spokesman for my ideas, then taking shape, on 'hominization' and the 'noosphere.{{Single+double}} Le Roy later wrote in one of his books: "I have so often and for so long talked over with Pierre Teilhard the views expressed here that neither of us can any longer pick out his own contribution."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Joye |first=Shelli |url=https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Noosphere-Teilhard-Shelli-Joye-ebook/dp/B08RJ7GVB5/ |title=Exploring the Noosphere: Teilhard de Chardin |language=English}}</ref>

==Academic and scientific career==
===Geology===
His father's strong interest in natural science and geology instilled the same in Teilhard from an early age, and would continue throughout his lifetime. As a child, Teilhard was intensely interested in the stones and rocks on his family's land and the neighboring regions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Early Years 1881 - 1899 |url=http://tcreek1.jimdofree.com/1-the-early-years/ |access-date=2023-12-24 |website=Teilhard de Chardin |language=en-US}}</ref> His father helped him develop his skills of observation. At the University of Paris, he studied geology, botany and zoology. After the French government banned all religious orders from France and the Jesuits were exiled to the island of Jersey in the UK, Teilhard deepened his geology knowledge by studying the rocks and landscape of the island.

In 1920, he became a lecturer in geology at the Catholic University of Paris, and later a professor. He earned his doctorate in 1922. In 1923 he was hired to do geological research on expeditions in China by the Jesuit scientist and priest [[Émile Licent|Emile Licent]]. In 1914, Licent with the sponsorship of the Jesuits founded one of the first museums in China and the first museum of natural science: the [[Musée Hoangho Paiho]]. In its first eight years, the museum was housed in the [[Chongde Hall]] of the Jesuits. In 1922, with the support of the Catholic Church and the French Concession, Licent built a special building for the museum on the land adjacent to the [[Tsin Ku University]], which was founded by the Jesuits in China.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

With help from Teilhard and others, Licent collected over 200,000 paleontology, animal, plant, ancient human, and rock specimens for the museum, which still make up more than half of its 380,000 specimens. Many of the publications and writings of the museum and its related institute were included in the world's database of [[zoological]], [[botanical]], and palaeontological literature, which is still an important basis for examining the early scientific records of the various disciplines of biology in northern China.

Teilhard and Licent were the first to discover and examine the [[Shuidonggou]] (水洞沟) ([[Ordos Loop|Ordos]] Upland, [[Inner Mongolia]]) archaeological site in northern China. Recent analysis of flaked stone artifacts from the most recent (1980) excavation at this site has identified an assemblage which constitutes the southernmost occurrence of an Initial Upper Paleolithic blade technology proposed to have originated in the Altai region of Southern Siberia. The lowest levels of the site are now dated from 40,000 to 25,000 years ago.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

Teilhard spent the periods between 1926-1935 and 1939-1945 studying and researching the geology and palaeontology of the region. Among other accomplishments, he improved understanding of China’s sedimentary deposits and established approximate ages for various layers. He also produced a geological map of China.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Macke |first=Robert |date=2020-01-26 |title=Religious Scientists: Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (1881-1955); Jesuit paleontologist |url=https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/sacred-space-astronomy/religious-scientists-fr-pierre-teilhard-de-chardin-s-j-1881-1955-jesuit-paleontologist/ |access-date=2023-12-24 |website=Vatican Observatory |language=en-US}}</ref> It was during the period 1926-1935 that he joined the excavation that discovered Peking Man.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

=== Paleontology ===
From 1912 to 1914, Teilhard began his [[paleontology|palaeontology]] education by working in the laboratory of the [[National Museum of Natural History, France|French National Museum of Natural History]], studying the [[mammal]]s of the middle [[Tertiary (period)|Tertiary]]. Later he studied elsewhere in Europe. This included spending 5 days over the course of a 3-month period in the middle of 1913 as a volunteer assistant helping to dig with [[Arthur Smith Woodward]] and [[Charles Dawson]] at the [[Piltdown]] site. Teilhard’s brief time assisting with digging there occurred many months after the discovery of the first fragments of the fraudulent "[[Piltdown Man]]".{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} [[Stephen Jay Gould]] judged that Pierre Teilhard de Chardin conspired with Dawson in the Piltdown forgery.<ref>{{Google books|o6g2tvN0nJoC|Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History|keywords=|text=|plainurl=}}</ref> Most Teilhard experts (including all three Teilhard biographers) and many scientists (including the scientists who uncovered the hoax and investigated it) have rejected the suggestion that he participated in the hoax.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Teilhard and the Pildown "Hoax" |url=http://www.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/teilhard_de_chardin/Chardin_defend/teilhardandpilthoax(lukas).html |access-date=2017-12-14 |website=www.clarku.edu |archive-date=14 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120614033556/http://www.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/Teilhard_de_Chardin/Chardin_defend/teilhardandpilthoax(lukas).html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Wayman |first=Erin |title=How to Solve Human Evolution's Greatest Hoax |language=en |work=Smithsonian |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-to-solve-human-evolutions-greatest-hoax-167921335/ |access-date=2017-12-14}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Costello |first=Peter |date=September 1981 |title=The Piltdown Puzzle, article in New Scientist |url=https://www2.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/Teilhard_de_Chardin/Chardin_defend/piltpuzzle.html |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=www2.clarku.edu |archive-date=28 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628204804/http://www2.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/Teilhard_de_Chardin/Chardin_defend/piltpuzzle.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=King |first=Thomas M. |date=1983 |title=Teilhard and Piltdown |url=https://www2.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/Teilhard_de_Chardin/Chardin_defend/teilhardandpilt.html |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=www2.clarku.edu |archive-date=19 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231219132044/https://www2.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/Teilhard_de_Chardin/Chardin_defend/teilhardandpilt.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Anthropologist [[Birx, H. James|H. James Birx]] wrote that Teilhard "had questioned the validity of this fossil evidence from the very beginning, one positive result was that the young geologist and seminarian now became particularly interested in palaeoanthropology as the science of fossil hominids.“<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Birx |first=H. James |date=1999 |title=The Phenomenon of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |url=https://huumanists.org/publications/journal/phenomenon-pierre-teilhard-de-chardin |access-date=2023-12-24 |website=UU Humanist Association |language=en}}</ref>  [[Marcellin Boule]], a [[palaeontologist]] and [[anthropologist]], who as early as 1915 had recognized the non-[[hominid]] origins of the Piltdown finds, gradually guided Teilhard towards human paleontology. Boule was the editor of the journal ''L’Anthropologie'' and the founder of two other scientific journals. He was also a professor at the Parisian [[National Museum of Natural History, France|Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle]] for 34 years, and for many years director of the museum's Institute of Human Paleontology.

It was there that Teilhard became a friend of [[Henri Breuil]], a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[priest]], [[archaeologist]], [[anthropologist]], [[ethnologist]] and [[geologist]]. In 1913, Teilhard and Breuil did excavations at the prehistoric painted [[Cave of El Castillo]] in Spain. The cave contains the oldest known cave painting in the world. The site is divided into about 19 archeological layers in a sequence beginning in the [[Proto-Aurignacian]] and ending in the [[Bronze Age]].

Later after his return to China in 1926, Teilhard was hired by the Cenozoic Laboratory at the Peking Union Medical College. Starting in 1928, he joined other geologists and palaeontologists to excavate the sedimentary layers in the Western Hills near Zhoukoudian. At this site, the scientists discovered the so-called Peking man (Sinanthropus pekinensis), a fossil hominid dating back at least 350,000 years, which is part of the Homo erectus phase of human evolution. Teilhard became well-known as a result of his accessible explanations of the Sinanthropus discovery. He also made major contributions to the geology of this site. Teilhard's long stay in China gave him more time to think and write about evolution, as well as continue his scientific research.<ref name=":4" />

After the [[Peking Man]] discoveries, Breuil joined Teilhard at the site in 1931 and confirmed the presence of stone tools.

=== Scientific writings ===
During his career, Teilhard published many dozens of scientific papers in scholarly scientific journals. When they were published in collections as books, they took up 11 volumes.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=McCulloch |first=Winifred |date=1981 |title=Some Remarks on Teilhard and the Piltdown Hoax |url=https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/djoyce/piltdown/map_prim_suspects/teilhard_de_chardin/Chardin_defend/remarksTeilhard.html |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=www2.clarku.edu}}</ref> [[John Allen Grim]], the co-founder and co-director of the [[Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology]], said: "I think you have to distinguish between the hundreds of papers that Teilhard wrote in a purely scientific vein, about which there is no controversy. In fact, the papers made him one of the top two or three geologists of the Asian continent. So this man knew what science was. What he's doing in ''The Phenomenon'' and most of the popular essays that have made him controversial is working pretty much alone to try to synthesize what he's learned about through scientific discovery - more than with scientific method - what scientific discoveries tell us about the nature of ultimate reality.” Grim said those writing were controversial to some scientists because Teilhard combined theology and metaphysics with science, and controversial to some religious leaders for the same reason.<ref name="youtube.com">{{Citation |title=Teilhard de Chardin: His Importance in the 21st Century | date=23 June 2015 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnCQHIeucNw |access-date=2023-12-19 |language=en}}</ref>

===Service in World War I===
Mobilized in December 1914, Teilhard served in [[World War I]] as a stretcher-bearer in the [[French colonial forces|8th Moroccan Rifles]]. Priests were mobilized in the France of the First World War era, and not as military chaplains but as either stretcher-bearers or actual fighting soldiers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Clerics in the trenches: French priests in WWI |url=https://archokc.org/news/clerics-in-the-trenches-french-priests-in-wwi |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=Archdiocese of Oklahoma City |language=en}}</ref>  For his valor, he received several citations, including the [[Médaille militaire]] and the [[Légion d'honneur|Legion of Honor]].

During the war, he developed his reflections in his diaries and in letters to his cousin, Marguerite Teillard-Chambon, who later published a collection of them. (See section below)<ref>''Genèse d'une pensée'' (English: "The Making of a Mind")</ref><ref name="letters1" /> He later wrote: "...the war was a meeting ... with the Absolute." In 1916, he wrote his first essay: ''La Vie Cosmique'' (''Cosmic life''), where his scientific and philosophical thought was revealed just as his mystical life. While on leave from the military he pronounced his solemn vows as a Jesuit in [[Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon]] on 26 May 1918. In August 1919, in [[Jersey]], he wrote ''Puissance spirituelle de la Matière'' (''The Spiritual Power of Matter'').

At the [[University of Paris]], Teilhard pursued three unit degrees of natural science: [[geology]], [[botany]], and [[zoology]]. His thesis treated the mammals of the French lower [[Eocene]] and their [[stratigraphy]]. After 1920, he lectured in geology at the [[Catholic Institute of Paris]] and after earning a science doctorate in 1922 became an assistant professor there.

===Research in China===
In 1923 he traveled to China with Father [[Émile Licent]], who was in charge of a significant laboratory collaboration between the National Museum of Natural History and [[Marcellin Boule]]'s laboratory in [[Tianjin]]. Licent carried out considerable basic work in connection with Catholic missionaries who accumulated observations of a scientific nature in their spare time.

Teilhard wrote several essays, including ''La Messe sur le Monde'' (''The Mass on the World''), in the [[Ordos Desert]]. In the following year, he continued lecturing at the Catholic Institute and participated in a cycle of conferences for the students of the Engineers' Schools. Two theological essays on [[original sin]] were sent to a theologian at his request on a purely personal basis:
* ''Chute, Rédemption et Géocentrie'' (''Fall, Redemption and Geocentry'') (July 1920)
* ''Notes sur quelques représentations historiques possibles du Péché originel'' (''Note on Some Possible Historical Representations of Original Sin'') (Works, Tome X, Spring 1922)

The Church required him to give up his lecturing at the Catholic Institute in order to continue his geological research in China. Teilhard traveled again to China in April 1926. He would remain there for about twenty years, with many voyages throughout the world. He settled until 1932 in Tianjin with Émile Licent, then in [[Beijing]]. Teilhard made five geological research expeditions in China between 1926 and 1935. They enabled him to establish a general geological map of China.

In 1926–27, after a missed campaign in [[Gansu]], Teilhard traveled in the [[Sanggan River|Sanggan River Valley]] near Kalgan ([[Zhangjiakou]]) and made a tour in Eastern [[Mongolia]]. He wrote ''Le Milieu Divin'' (''[[The Divine Milieu]]''). Teilhard prepared the first pages of his main work ''Le Phénomène Humain'' (''[[The Phenomenon of Man]]''). The Holy See refused the Imprimatur for ''Le Milieu Divin'' in 1927. 
[[File:Illustration of Peking Man (Sinanthropus Pekinen Sis) Wellcome M0001113.jpg|thumb|upright|Sketch of "The Lately Discovered Peking Man" published in ''[[The Sphere (newspaper)|The Sphere]]'']]

He joined the ongoing excavations of the [[Peking Man]] Site at [[Zhoukoudian]] as an advisor in 1926 and continued in the role for the [[Cenozoic Research Laboratory]] of the [[China Geological Survey]] following its founding in 1928. Teilhard resided in [[Manchuria]] with Émile Licent, staying in western [[Shanxi]] and northern [[Shaanxi]] with the Chinese paleontologist [[Yang Zhongjian]] and with [[Davidson Black]], Chairman of the China Geological Survey.

After a tour in Manchuria in the area of [[Greater Khingan]] with Chinese geologists, Teilhard joined the team of American Expedition Center-Asia in the [[Gobi Desert]], organized in June and July by the [[American Museum of Natural History]] with [[Roy Chapman Andrews]]. Henri Breuil and Teilhard discovered that the [[Peking Man]], the nearest relative of ''[[Anthropopithecus]]'' from [[Java]], was a ''faber'' (worker of stones and controller of fire). Teilhard wrote ''L'Esprit de la Terre'' (''The Spirit of the Earth'').

Teilhard took part as a scientist in the [[Croisière Jaune]] (Yellow Cruise) financed by [[André Citroën]] in [[Central Asia]]. Northwest of Beijing in Kalgan, he joined the Chinese group who joined the second part of the team, the [[Pamir Mountains|Pamir]] group, in [[Aksu City]]. He remained with his colleagues for several months in [[Ürümqi]], capital of [[Xinjiang]]. In 1933, Rome ordered him to give up his post in Paris. Teilhard subsequently undertook several explorations in the south of China. He traveled in the valleys of the [[Yangtze]] and [[Sichuan]] in 1934, then, the following year, in [[Guangxi]] and [[Guangdong]].{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

During all these years, Teilhard contributed considerably to the constitution of an international network of research in human paleontology related to the whole of eastern and southeastern Asia. He would be particularly associated in this task with two friends, [[Davidson Black]] and the [[Scottish people|Scot]] [[George Brown Barbour]]. Often he would visit France or the United States, only to leave these countries for further expeditions.{{citation needed|date=July 2025}}

===World travels===
[[File:TeilhardP 1947.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|left|Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1947)]]

From 1927 to 1928, Teilhard was based in Paris. He journeyed to [[Leuven]], Belgium, and to [[Cantal]] and [[Ariège (department)|Ariège]], France. Between several articles in reviews, he met new people such as [[Paul Valéry]] and {{Interlanguage link|Bruno de Solages|fr}}, who were to help him in issues with the Catholic Church.

Answering an invitation from [[Henry de Monfreid]], Teilhard undertook a journey of two months in [[Obock]], in [[Harar]] in the [[Ethiopian Empire]], and in [[Somalia]] with his colleague Pierre Lamarre, a geologist,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gaudant |first=Jean |date=2012 |title=Brève histoire de la Société géologique de France vue à travers ses présidents successifs |url=https://www.annales.org/archives/cofrhigeo/gaudant-SGF.html |journal=Travaux du Comité français d'histoire de la géologie |pages=81–104}}</ref> before embarking in [[Djibouti]] to return to Tianjin. While in China, Teilhard developed a deep and personal friendship with [[Lucile Swan]].<ref name="Aczel">{{Cite book |last=Aczel |first=Amir |url=https://archive.org/details/jesuitskull00acze/page/320 |title=The Jesuit and the Skull: Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man |date=4 November 2008 |publisher=Riverhead Trade |isbn=978-1-594489-56-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/jesuitskull00acze/page/320 320] |author-link=Amir Aczel}}</ref>

During 1930–1931, Teilhard stayed in France and in the United States. During a conference in Paris, Teilhard stated: "For the observers of the Future, the greatest event will be the sudden appearance of a collective humane [[conscience]] and a human work to make." From 1932 to 1933, he began to meet people to clarify issues with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding ''Le Milieu divin'' and ''L'Esprit de la Terre''. He met [[Helmut de Terra]], a [[Germans|German]] geologist in the [[International Union of Geological Sciences|International Geology Congress]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]

Teilhard participated in the 1935 [[Yale University|Yale]]–[[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]] expedition in northern and central India with the geologist [[Helmut de Terra]] and Patterson, who verified their assumptions on Indian [[Paleolithic]] civilisations in [[Kashmir]] and the [[Salt Range]] Valley. He then made a short stay in [[Java]], on the invitation of [[Netherlands|Dutch]] paleontologist [[Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald]] to the site of [[Java Man]]. A second [[human skull|cranium]], more complete, was discovered. Professor von Koenigswald had also found a tooth in a Chinese [[apothecary]] shop in 1934 that he believed belonged to a three-meter-tall [[ape]], ''[[Gigantopithecus]],'' which lived between one hundred thousand and around a million years ago. Fossilized teeth and bone (''[[dragon bones]]'') are often ground into powder and used in some branches of [[traditional Chinese medicine]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Gigantopithecus was discovered |url=http://www.uiowa.edu/~nathist/Site/giganto.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080808033329/http://www.uiowa.edu/~nathist/Site/giganto.html |archive-date=8 August 2008 |access-date=16 September 2016 |publisher=The [[University of Iowa]] Museum of Natural History |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

In 1937, Teilhard wrote ''Le Phénomène spirituel'' (''The Phenomenon of the Spirit'') on board the boat Empress of Japan, where he met [[Sylvia Brett]], [[List of Sarawakian consorts|Ranee]] of [[Sarawak]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/LettersFromATraveller|title=Letters from a Traveller|accessdate=26 September 2022|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The ship took him to the United States. He received the [[Mendel Medal (Villanova University)|Mendel Medal]] granted by [[Villanova University]] during the Congress of [[Philadelphia]], in recognition of his works on human paleontology. He made a speech about [[evolution]], the origins and the destiny of man. ''[[The New York Times]]'' dated 19 March 1937 presented Teilhard as the Jesuit who held that [[human|man]] descended from [[monkeys]]. Some days later, he was to be granted the ''[[Doctor Honoris Causa]]'' distinction from [[Boston College]].

Rome banned his work ''L'Énergie Humaine'' in 1939. By this point Teilhard was based again in France, where he was immobilized by [[malaria]]. During his return voyage to Beijing he wrote ''L'Energie spirituelle de la Souffrance'' (''Spiritual Energy of Suffering'') (Complete Works, tome VII).

In 1941, Teilhard submitted to Rome his most important work, ''Le Phénomène Humain''. By 1947, Rome forbade him to write or teach on philosophical subjects. The next year, Teilhard was called to Rome by the Superior General of the Jesuits who hoped to acquire permission from the Holy See for the publication of ''Le Phénomène Humain''. However, the prohibition to publish it that was previously issued in 1944 was again renewed. Teilhard was also forbidden to take a teaching post in the Collège de France. Another setback came in 1949, when permission to publish ''Le Groupe Zoologique'' was refused.

Teilhard was nominated to the [[French Academy of Sciences]] in 1950. He was forbidden by his superiors to attend the International Congress of Paleontology in 1955. The Supreme Authority of the Holy Office, in a decree dated 15 November 1957, forbade the works of de Chardin to be retained in libraries, including those of [[religious institute]]s. His books were not to be sold in Catholic bookshops and were not to be translated into other languages.

Further resistance to Teilhard's work arose elsewhere. In April 1958, all Jesuit publications in Spain ("Razón y Fe", "Sal Terrae","Estudios de Deusto", etc.) carried a notice from the Spanish Provincial of the Jesuits that Teilhard's works had been published in Spanish without previous ecclesiastical examination and in defiance of the decrees of the Holy See. A decree of the Holy Office dated 30 June 1962, under the authority of [[Pope John XXIII]], warned:

{{blockquote|[I]t is obvious that in philosophical and theological matters, the said works [Teilhard's] are replete with ambiguities or rather with serious errors which offend Catholic doctrine. That is why... the Rev. Fathers of the Holy Office urge all Ordinaries, Superiors, and Rectors... to effectively protect, especially the minds of the young, against the dangers of the works of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin and his followers.<ref>AAS, 6 August 1962</ref>}}

The [[Diocese of Rome]] on 30 September 1963 required Catholic booksellers in Rome to withdraw his works as well as those that supported his views.<ref>The text of this decree was published in daily ''L’Aurore'' of Paris, dated 2 October 1963, and was reproduced in ''Nouvelles De Chrétienté'', 10 October 1963, p.&nbsp;35.</ref>

===Death===
[[File:CIA Jesuit cemetery 02.jpg|thumb|Grave at the cemetery of the former Jesuit novitiate in Hyde Park, New York]]

Teilhard died in New York City, where he was in residence at the Jesuit [[Church of St. Ignatius Loyola (New York City)|Church of St. Ignatius Loyola]], [[Park Avenue (Manhattan)|Park Avenue]]. On 15 March 1955, at the house of his diplomat cousin Jean de Lagarde, Teilhard told friends he hoped he would die on [[Easter Sunday]].<ref name="design">{{Cite book |last=Smulders |first=Pieter Frans |url=https://archive.org/details/designofteilhard0000smul |title=The design of Teilhard de Chardin: an essay in theological reflection |date=1967 |publisher=Newman Press |url-access=registration}}{{page needed|date=November 2017}}</ref> On the evening of Easter Sunday, 10 April 1955, during an animated discussion at the apartment of Rhoda de Terra, his personal assistant since 1949, Teilhard suffered a heart attack and died.<ref name=design/> He was buried in the cemetery for the New York Province of the Jesuits at the Jesuit novitiate, [[St. Andrew-on-Hudson]], in [[Hyde Park, New York]]. With the moving of the novitiate, the property was sold to the [[Hyde Park campus of the Culinary Institute of America|Culinary Institute of America]] in 1970.
[[File:Grave of Teilhard by afc.jpg|alt=Teilhard's Grave|thumb|Recent image of Teilhard's grave in Hyde Park, New York]]

==Teachings==
{{Transhumanism|People}}
Teilhard de Chardin wrote two comprehensive works, ''[[The Phenomenon of Man]]'' and ''The Divine Milieu''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Divine Milieu: Work by Teilhard de Chardin |url=http://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Divine-Milieu |access-date=28 October 2015 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica }}</ref>

His posthumously published book, ''The Phenomenon of Man'', set forth a sweeping account of the unfolding of the [[cosmos]] and the evolution of matter to humanity, to ultimately a reunion with Christ. In the book, Teilhard abandoned literal interpretations of creation in the [[Book of Genesis]] in favor of [[Allegorical interpretations of Genesis|allegorical and theological interpretations]]. The unfolding of the material [[cosmos]] is described from [[primordial nuclide|primordial]] particles to the development of life, human beings and the [[noosphere]], and finally to his vision of the [[Omega Point]] in the future, which is "pulling" all creation towards it. He was a leading proponent of [[orthogenesis]], the idea that [[evolution]] occurs in a directional, goal-driven way. Teilhard argued in [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]ian terms with respect to biology, and supported the [[Modern synthesis (20th century)|synthetic model of evolution]], but argued in [[Lamarckism|Lamarckian terms]] for the development of culture, primarily through the vehicle of education.<ref>{{YouTube|OoI4Bamf-9s|"Teilhard de Chardin, Orthogenesis, and the Mechanism of Evolutionary Change"}} by [http://www.thomasfglick.com/ Thomas F Glick].</ref>

Teilhard made a total commitment to the evolutionary process in the 1920s as the core of his spirituality, at a time when other religious thinkers felt evolutionary thinking challenged the structure of conventional Christian faith. He committed himself to what he thought the evidence showed.<ref>Berry, Thomas (1982) "Teilhard de Chardin in the Age of Ecology" (Studies of Teilhard de Chardin)</ref>

Teilhard made sense of the [[universe]] by assuming it had a [[vitalism|vitalist]] evolutionary process.<ref name="NormandinWolfe2013">{{Cite book |last1=Normandin |first1=Sebastian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EQVAAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 |title=Vitalism and the Scientific Image in Post-Enlightenment Life Science, 1800-2010 |last2=Charles T. Wolfe |date=15 June 2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-94-007-2445-7 |pages=10 |quote=vitalism finds occasional expression in the neo-Thomist philosophies associated with Catholicism. Indeed, Catholic philosophy was heavily influenced by bergson in the early twentieth century, and there is a direct link between Bergson's neo-vitalism and the nascent neo-Thomism of thinkers like Jacques Maritain, which led to various idealist interpretations of biology which labeled themselves 'vitalistic', such as those of Edouard Le Roy (influenced by Teilhard de Chardin).}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=(Review of) Howard, Damian.Being Human in Islam: The Impact of the Evolutionary Worldview |url=http://teilharddechardin.org/mm_uploads/Fall2011.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Teilhard Perspective |volume=44 |issue=2 |page=12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304184057/http://teilharddechardin.org/mm_uploads/Fall2011.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2018 |access-date=24 January 2017 |quote=the strong influence of Henri Bergson, via the writings of Muhammed Iqbal, who is seen to represent a Romantic, Naturphilosophie school of "vitalist cosmic progressivism," in contrast to Western mechanical materialism. And Teilhard, much akin to the French Bergson, along with Karl Rahner, are rightly noted as latter exemplars of this life-affirmative option.}}</ref> He interpreted complexity as the axis of evolution of matter into a geosphere, a biosphere, into consciousness (in man), and then to supreme consciousness (the Omega Point). Jean Houston's story of meeting Teilhard illustrates this point.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Facebook |url=https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10222875425787589 |access-date=2021-05-09 |website=www.facebook.com}}</ref>

Teilhard's unique relationship to both [[paleontology]] and [[Catholicism]] allowed him to develop a highly progressive, [[cosmic Christ|cosmic theology]] which took into account his evolutionary studies. Teilhard recognized the importance of bringing the Church into the modern world, and approached [[evolution]] as a way of providing ontological meaning for Christianity, particularly creation theology. For Teilhard, evolution was "the natural landscape where the history of salvation is situated."<ref name="Galleni">{{Cite journal |last1=Galleni |first1=Ludovico |last2=Scalfari |first2=Francesco |date=2005 |title=Teilhard de Chardin's Engagement with the Relationship between Science and Theology in Light of Discussions about Environmental Ethics |journal=Ecotheology |volume=10 |issue=2 |page=197 |doi=10.1558/ecot.2005.10.2.196}}</ref>

Teilhard's cosmic theology is largely predicated on his interpretation of [[Paul the Apostle|Pauline scripture]], particularly Colossians 1:15-17 (especially verse 1:17b) and 1 Corinthians 15:28. He drew on the Christocentrism of these two Pauline passages to construct a cosmic theology which recognizes the absolute primacy of Christ. He understood creation to be "a [[teleology|teleological]] process towards union with the Godhead, effected through the incarnation and redemption of Christ, 'in whom all things hold together' (Colossians 1:17)."<ref name="Oxford University Press">{{Cite book |last=Lyons |first=J. A. |title=The Cosmic Christ in Origen and Teilhard de Chardin: A Comparative Study |date=1982 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |page=39}}</ref> He further posited that creation would not be complete until each "participated being is totally united with God through Christ in the [[Pleroma]], when God will be 'all in all' (1 Corinthians 15:28)."<ref name="Oxford University Press" /> 
 
Teilhard's life work was predicated on his conviction that human spiritual development is moved by the same universal laws as material development. He wrote, "...everything is the sum of the past" and "...nothing is comprehensible except through its history. 'Nature' is the equivalent of 'becoming', self-creation: this is the view to which experience irresistibly leads us. ... There is nothing, not even the human soul, the highest spiritual manifestation we know of, that does not come within this universal law."<ref>Teilhard de Chardin: [https://web.archive.org/web/20050120154909/http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=2287&C=2162 "A Note on Progress"]</ref>

''The Phenomenon of Man'' represents Teilhard's attempt at reconciling his religious [[Catholicism|faith]] with his academic interests as a [[paleontologist]].<ref name="phenomenon1">Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, ''The Phenomenon of Man'' (New York: Harper and Row, 1959), 250–75.</ref> One particularly poignant observation in Teilhard's book entails the notion that [[evolution]] is becoming an increasingly optional [[Process (science)|process]].<ref name="phenomenon1" /> Teilhard points to the societal problems of [[Solitude|isolation]] and [[marginalization]] as huge [[:wikt:inhibit|inhibitor]]s of evolution, especially since evolution requires a unification of [[higher consciousness|consciousness]]. He states that "no evolutionary future awaits anyone except in association with everyone else."<ref name="phenomenon1" /> Teilhard argued that the human condition necessarily leads to the psychic unity of humankind, though he stressed that this unity can only be voluntary; this voluntary psychic unity he termed "unanimization". Teilhard also states that "evolution is an ascent toward consciousness", giving [[encephalization]] as an example of early stages, and therefore, signifies a continuous upsurge toward the [[Omega Point]]<ref name="phenomenon1" /> which, for all intents and purposes, is [[God]].

Teilhard also used his perceived correlation between spiritual and material to describe Christ, arguing that Christ not only has a [[mystical]] dimension but also takes on a physical dimension as he becomes the organizing principle of the universe—that is, the one who "holds together" the universe. For Teilhard, Christ formed not only the [[eschatological]] end toward which his mystical/ecclesial body is oriented, but he also "operates physically in order to regulate all things"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lyons |title=The Cosmic Christ in Origen and Teilhard de Chardin |date=1982 |page=154}}</ref> becoming "the one from whom all creation receives its stability."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lyons |title=The Cosmic Christ in Origen and Teilhard de Chardin: A Comparative Study |date=1982 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |page=152}}</ref> In other words, as the one who holds all things together, "Christ exercises a supremacy over the universe which is physical, not simply juridical. He is the unifying center of the universe and its goal. The function of holding all things together indicates that Christ is not only man and God; he also possesses a third aspect—indeed, a third nature—which is cosmic."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lyons |title=The Cosmic Christ in Origen and Teilhard de Chardin |date=1982 |page=153}}</ref>

In this way, the Pauline description of the [[Body of Christ]] was not simply a mystical or [[ecclesial]] concept for Teilhard; it is [[cosmic Christ|cosmic]]. This cosmic Body of Christ "extend[s] throughout the universe and compris[es] all things that attain their fulfillment in Christ [so that] ... the Body of Christ is the one single thing that is being made in creation."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lyons |title=The Cosmic Christ in Origen and Teilhard de Chardin |date=1982 |pages=154–155}}</ref> Teilhard describes this cosmic amassing of Christ as "Christogenesis". According to Teilhard, the universe is engaged in Christogenesis as it evolves toward its full realization at [[Omega Point|Omega]], a point which coincides with the fully realized Christ.<ref name="Oxford University Press" /> It is at this point that God will be "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28c).

{{blockquote|Our century is probably more religious than any other. How could it fail to be, with such problems to be solved? The only trouble is that it has not yet found a God it can adore.<ref name="phenomenon1" />}}

==Relationship with the Catholic Church==

In 1925, Teilhard was ordered by the [[Superior General of the Society of Jesus]], [[Wlodimir Ledóchowski|Włodzimierz Ledóchowski]], to leave his teaching position in France and to sign a statement withdrawing his controversial statements regarding the doctrine of original sin. Rather than quit the Society of Jesus, Teilhard obeyed and departed for China.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gibney |first=Frank |date=1977-02-20 |title=Teilhard |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/02/20/archives/teilhard-sin-was-part-of-the-plan.html |access-date=2025-06-23 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

This was the first of a series of condemnations by a range of ecclesiastical officials that would continue until after Teilhard's death. In August 1939, he was told by his Jesuit superior in [[Beijing]], "Father, as an [[Evolutionism|evolutionist]] and a Communist, you are undesirable here, and will have to return to France as soon as possible".{{sfn|Cuénot|1965|p=239}} The climax of these condemnations was a 1962 ''[[monitum]]'' (warning) of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith cautioning on Teilhard's works. It said:<ref>{{Cite news |last=O'Connell |first=Gerard |date=21 November 2017 |title=Will Pope Francis remove the Vatican's 'warning' from Teilhard de Chardin's writings? |work=[[America (magazine)|America]] |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/11/21/will-pope-francis-remove-vaticans-warning-teilhard-de-chardins-writings |url-status=dead |access-date=21 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171122030118/https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/11/21/will-pope-francis-remove-vaticans-warning-teilhard-de-chardins-writings |archive-date=22 November 2017}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Several works of Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, some of which were posthumously published, are being edited and are gaining a good deal of success. Prescinding from a judgement about those points that concern the positive sciences, it is sufficiently clear that the above-mentioned works abound in such ambiguities and indeed even serious errors, as to offend Catholic doctrine. For this reason, the most eminent and most revered Fathers of the Holy Office exhort all Ordinaries as well as the superiors of Religious institutes, rectors of seminaries and presidents of universities, effectively to protect the minds, particularly of the youth, against the dangers presented by the works of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin and of his followers.}}

The [[Holy Office]] did not, however, place any of Teilhard's writings on the ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]]'' (Index of Forbidden Books), which still existed during Teilhard's lifetime and at the time of the 1962 decree.

Shortly thereafter, prominent clerics mounted a strong theological defense of Teilhard's works. [[Henri de Lubac]] (later a Cardinal) wrote three comprehensive books on the theology of Teilhard de Chardin in the 1960s.<ref>Wojciech Sadłoń, Teologia Teilharda de Chardin. Studium nad komentarzami Henri de Lubaca, Warszawa, UKSW 2009</ref> While de Lubac mentioned that Teilhard was less than precise in some of his concepts, he affirmed the orthodoxy of Teilhard de Chardin and responded to Teilhard's critics: "We need not concern ourselves with a number of detractors of Teilhard, in whom emotion has blunted intelligence".<ref>Cardinal Henri Cardinal de Lubac&nbsp;– ''The Religion of Teilhard de Chardin'', Image Books (1968)</ref> Later that decade Joseph Ratzinger, a German theologian who became [[Pope Benedict XVI]], spoke glowingly of Teilhard's Christology in Ratzinger's ''Introduction to Christianity'':<ref>Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal; Pope Benedict XVI; Benedict; J. R. Foster; Michael J. Miller (4 June 2010). ''Introduction To Christianity'', 2nd Edition (Kindle Locations 2840-2865). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.</ref>

{{blockquote|It must be regarded as an important service of Teilhard de Chardin's that he rethought these ideas from the angle of the modern view of the world and, in spite of a not entirely unobjectionable tendency toward the biological approach, nevertheless on the whole grasped them correctly and in any case made them accessible once again.|sign=|source=}}

On 20 July 1981, the Holy See stated that, after consultation of cardinals Casaroli and [[Franjo Šeper|Šeper]], the letter did not change the position of the warning issued by the Holy Office on 30 June 1962, which pointed out that Teilhard's work contained ambiguities and grave doctrinal errors.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1981-07-20 |title=Teilhard de Chardin |url=https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/teilhard-de-chardin-2595 |access-date=2019-12-31 |website=www.ewtn.com |publisher=L'osservatore romano |page=2}}</ref>

Cardinal Ratzinger in his book ''[[The Spirit of the Liturgy]]'' incorporates Teilhard's vision as a touchstone of the Catholic Mass:<ref>– Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal; Pope Benedict XVI (11 June 2009). The Spirit of the Liturgy (Kindle Locations 260–270). Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.</ref>{{blockquote|And so we can now say that the goal of worship and the goal of creation as a whole are one and the same—divinization, a world of freedom and love. But this means that the historical makes its appearance in the cosmic. The cosmos is not a kind of closed building, a stationary container in which history may by chance take place. It is itself movement, from its one beginning to its one end. In a sense, creation is history. Against the background of the modern evolutionary world view, Teilhard de Chardin depicted the cosmos as a process of ascent, a series of unions. From very simple beginnings the path leads to ever greater and more complex unities, in which multiplicity is not abolished but merged into a growing synthesis, leading to the "Noosphere" in which spirit and its understanding embrace the whole and are blended into a kind of living organism. Invoking the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, Teilhard looks on Christ as the energy that strives toward the Noosphere and finally incorporates everything in its "fullness". From here Teilhard went on to give a new meaning to Christian worship: the transubstantiated Host is the anticipation of the transformation and divinization of matter in the christological "fullness". In his view, the [[Eucharist]] provides the movement of the cosmos with its direction; it anticipates its goal and at the same time urges it on.}}

Cardinal [[Avery Dulles]] said in 2004:<ref>A Eucharistic Church: The Vision of John Paul II&nbsp;– McGinley Lecture, University, 10 November 2004</ref>

{{blockquote|In his own poetic style, the French Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin liked to meditate on the Eucharist as the first fruits of the new creation. In an essay called The Monstrance he describes how, kneeling in prayer, he had a sensation that the Host was beginning to grow until at last, through its mysterious expansion, "the whole world had become incandescent, had itself become like a single giant Host". Although it would probably be incorrect to imagine that the universe will eventually be transubstantiated, Teilhard correctly identified the connection between the Eucharist and the final glorification of the cosmos.}}

Cardinal [[Christoph Schönborn]] wrote in 2007:<ref>Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, Creation, Evolution, and a Rational Faith, Ignatian Press (2007)</ref>

{{blockquote|Hardly anyone else has tried to bring together the knowledge of Christ and the idea of evolution as the scientist (paleontologist) and theologian Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., has done.&nbsp;...  His fascinating vision&nbsp;... has represented a great hope, the hope that faith in Christ and a scientific approach to the world can be brought together.&nbsp;...  These brief references to Teilhard cannot do justice to his efforts. The fascination which Teilhard de Chardin exercised for an entire generation stemmed from his radical manner of looking at science and Christian faith together.}}

In July 2009, Vatican spokesman [[Federico Lombardi]] said, "By now, no one would dream of saying that [Teilhard] is a heterodox author who shouldn't be studied."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Allen |first=John |date=28 July 2009 |title=Pope cites Teilhardian vision of the cosmos as a 'living host' |work=National Catholic Reporter |url=http://ncronline.org/news/pope-cites-teilhardian-vision-cosmos-living-host |access-date=19 June 2015}}</ref>

[[Pope Francis]] refers to Teilhard's eschatological contribution in his encyclical ''[[Laudato si']]''.<ref name="Laudato si">{{Citation |last=Pope Francis |title=ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI' OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME |date=24 May 2015 |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_en.pdf |page=61 |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref>

The philosopher [[Dietrich von Hildebrand]] criticized severely the work of Teilhard. According to Hildebrand, in a conversation after a lecture by Teilhard: "He (Teilhard) ignored completely the decisive difference between nature and supernature. After a lively discussion in which I ventured a criticism of his ideas, I had an opportunity to speak to Teilhard privately. When our talk touched on [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]], he exclaimed violently: 'Don't mention that unfortunate man; he spoiled everything by introducing the supernatural.'"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Von Hildebrand |first=Dietrich |url=https://archive.org/details/trojanhorseincit00vonh |title=Trojan Horse in the City of God |publisher=Sophia Inst Pr |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-918477-18-7}}</ref> Von Hildebrand writes that Teilhardism is incompatible with Christianity, substitutes efficiency for sanctity, dehumanizes man, and describes love as merely cosmic energy.

==Evaluations by scientists==

=== Julian Huxley ===
[[Julian Huxley]], the evolutionary biologist, in the preface to the 1955 edition of ''The Phenomenon of Man'', praised the thought of Teilhard de Chardin for looking at the way in which human development needs to be examined within a larger integrated universal sense of evolution, though admitting he could not follow Teilhard all the way.<ref>Huxley, Julian "Preface" to Teilhard de Chardin, Teilhard (1955) "The Phenomenon of Man" (Fontana)</ref> In the publication Encounter, Huxley wrote: "The force and purity of Teilhard's thought and expression ... has given the world a picture not only of rare clarity but pregnant with compelling conclusions."<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Acclaim for Teilhard and his Works |url=http://tcreek1.jimdofree.com/acclaim-for-teilhard/ |access-date=2023-12-24 |website=Teilhard de Chardin |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Theodosius Dobzhansky===
[[Theodosius Dobzhansky]], writing in 1973, drew upon Teilhard's insistence that evolutionary theory provides the core of how man understands his relationship to nature, calling him "one of the great thinkers of our age".<ref name="Dobz_Nothing">{{Cite journal |last=Dobzhansky |first=Theodosius |author-link=Theodosius Dobzhansky |date=March 1973 |title=Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution |journal=[[American Biology Teacher]] |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=125–129 |doi=10.2307/4444260 |jstor=4444260 |s2cid=207358177}} Reprinted in J. Peter Zetterberg (ed.), ''Evolution versus Creationism'' (1983), ORYX Press.</ref> Dobzhansky was renowned as the president of four prestigious scientific associations: the [[Genetics Society of America]], the [[American Society of Naturalists]], the [[Society for the Study of Evolution]] and the [[American Society of Zoologists]]. He also&nbsp;called Teilhard&nbsp;"one of the greatest intellects of our time."<ref name=":5" />

=== Daniel Dennett ===
[[Daniel Dennett]] claimed "it has become clear to the point of unanimity among scientists that Teilhard offered nothing serious in the way of an alternative to orthodoxy; the ideas that were peculiarly his were confused, and the rest was just bombastic redescription of orthodoxy."<ref name="Dennett1995">{{Cite book |first=Daniel C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y77BAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA320 |title=Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life |date=1995 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-4391-2629-5 |pages=320– |last=Dennett}}</ref>

=== David Sloan Wilson ===
In 2019, evolutionary biologist [[David Sloan Wilson]] praised Teilhard's book ''The Phenomenon of Man'' as  "scientifically prophetic in many ways", and considers his own work as an updated version of it, commenting that<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=David Sloan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_qZbDwAAQBAJ |title=This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution |date=26 February 2019 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-101-87021-1}}</ref> "[m]odern evolutionary theory shows that what Teilhard meant by the Omega Point is achievable in the foreseeable future."

=== Robert Francoeur ===
[[Robert T. Francoeur|Robert Francoeur]] (1931-2012), the American biologist, said the Phenomenon of Man "will be one of the few books that will be remembered after the dust of the century has settled on many of its companions."

===Stephen Jay Gould===
In an essay published in the magazine ''[[Natural History (magazine)|Natural History]]'' (and later compiled as the 16th essay in his book ''[[Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes]]''), American biologist [[Stephen Jay Gould]] made a case for Teilhard's guilt in the [[Piltdown Man|Piltdown Hoax]], arguing that Teilhard has made several compromising slips of the tongue in his correspondence with paleontologist [[Kenneth Oakley]], in addition to what Gould termed to be his "suspicious silence" about Piltdown despite having been, at that moment in time, an important milestone in his career.<ref name="Gould1980">{{cite book |last=Gould |first=Stephen Jay |author-link=Stephen Jay Gould |date=1994 |title=Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History|url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25397178M/Hen's_Teeth_and_Horse's_Toes_-_Further_Reflections_in_Natural_History |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=0393017168|ol=25397178M }}</ref> In a later book, Gould claims that [[Steven Rose]] wrote that "Teilhard is revered as a mystic of genius by some, but among most biologists is seen as little more than a [[charlatan]]."<ref name="Gould2006">{{Cite book |last=Gould |first=Stephen Jay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yfXJhKmp1wUC&pg=PA69 |title=The Richness of Life: The Essential Stephen Jay Gould |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-393-06498-8 |pages=69–}}{{clarify|date=August 2018}}<!--is Gould quoting Rose? or is Rose editing Gould? In what context was the statement made, and why are we citing Gould as a reference?--></ref>

Numerous scientists and Teilhard experts have refuted Gould’s theories about Teilhard’s guilt in the hoax, saying they are based on inaccuracies. In an article in New Scientist in September, 1981, Peter Costello said claims that Teilhard had been silent were factually wrong: “Much else of what is said about Teilhard is also wrong. …. After the exposure of the hoax, he did not refuse to make a statement; he gave a statement to the press on 26 November 1953, which was published in New York and London the next day. .... If questions needed to be asked about Teilhard's role in the Piltdown affair, they could have been asked when he was in London during the summer of 1953. They were not asked. But enough is now known to prove Teilhard innocent of all involvement in the hoax.”<ref name=":0" /> Teilhard also wrote multiple letters about the hoax at the request of and in reply to Oakley, one of the 3 scientists who uncovered it, in an effort to help them get to the bottom of what occurred 40 years earlier.

Another of the three scientists, S.J. Weiner said he spoke to Teilhard extensively about Piltdown and "He (Teilhard) discussed all the points that I put to him perfectly frankly and openly."<ref name=":1" /> Weiner spent years investigating who was responsible for the hoax and concluded that Charles Dawson was the sole culprit.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Lukas |first=Mary |date=1983 |title=The Haunting, article in the journal Antiquity |url=http://www2.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/teilhard_de_chardin/Chardin_defend/haunting.html |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=www2.clarku.edu |archive-date=19 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231219132046/http://www2.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/teilhard_de_chardin/Chardin_defend/haunting.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> He also said: "Gould would have you accept that Oakley was the same mind (as himself); but it is not so. When Gould's article came out Oakley dissociated himself from it. ...I have seen Oakley recently and he has no reservations... about his belief that Teilhard had nothing to do with the planting of this material and manufacture of the fraud."

In November, 1981, Oakley himself published a letter in [[New Scientist]] saying: "There is no proved factual evidence known to me that supports the premise that Father Teilhard de Chardin gave Charles Dawson a piece of fossil elephant molar tooth as a souvenir of his time spent in North Africa. This faulty thread runs throughout the reconstruction ... After spending a year thinking about this accusation, I have at last become convinced that it is erroneous."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Oakley |first=Kenneth |date=November 1981 |title=Piltdown Man, Letter to New Scientist |url=https://www2.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/Teilhard_de_Chardin/Chardin_defend/piltdownman.html |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=www2.clarku.edu |archive-date=28 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628221718/http://www2.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/Teilhard_de_Chardin/Chardin_defend/piltdownman.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Oakley also pointed out that after Teilhard got his degree in paleontology and gained experience in the field, he published scientific articles that show he found the scientific claims of the two Piltdown leaders to be incongruous, and that Teilhard did not agree they had discovered an ape-man that was a missing link between apes and humans.

In a comprehensive rebuttal of Gould in America magazine, Mary Lukas said his claims about Teilhard were "patently ridiculous” and “wilder flights of fancy” that were easily disprovable and weak. For example, she notes Teilhard was only briefly and minimally involved in the Piltdown project for four reasons: 1) He was only a student in his early days of studying paleontology. 2) His college was in France and he was at the Piltdown site in Britain for a total of just 5 days over a short period of three months out of the 7-year project. 3) He was simply a volunteer assistant, helping with basic digging. 4) This limited involvement ended prior to the most important claimed discovery, due to his being conscripted to serve in the French army.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lukas |first=Mary |date=1981 |title=Teilhard and the Pildown "Hoax", article in the magazine America |url=https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/djoyce/piltdown/map_prim_suspects/teilhard_de_chardin/chardin_defend/teilhardandpilthoax(lukas).html |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=www2.clarku.edu}}</ref> She added: "Further, according to his letters, both published and unpublished, to friends, Teilhard's relationship to Dawson was anything but close."

Lukas said Gould made the claims for selfish reasons: “The charge gained Mr. Gould two weeks of useful publicity and prepared reviewers to give a friendly reception to the collection of essays” that he was about to publish. She said Teilhard was “beyond doubt the most famous of” all the people who were involved in the excavations” and “the one who could gather headlines most easily…. The shock value of the suggestion that the philosopher-hero was also a criminal was stunning.” Two years later, Lukas published a more detailed article in the British scholarly journal [[Antiquity (journal)|Antiquity]] in which she further refuted Gould, including an extensive timeline of events.<ref name=":3" />

Winifred McCulloch wrote a very detailed rebuttal of Gould, calling his claim “highly subjective,” “very idiosyncratic,” filled with clear “weaknesses” and “shown to be impossible.” She said Weiner had criticized Gould's accusations in a talk at Georgetown University in 1981.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCulloch |first=Winifred |date=December 1983 |title=A Readers Guide to S. J. Gould's Piltdown Argument |url=http://www2.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/Teilhard_de_Chardin/Chardin_defend/readersguide.html |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=www2.clarku.edu |archive-date=28 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628211117/http://www2.clarku.edu/~piltdown/map_prim_suspects/Teilhard_de_Chardin/Chardin_defend/readersguide.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>  She also noted that Oakley wrote in a letter to Lukas in 1981 that her article in America constituted "a total refutation of Gould's interpretation of Teilhard's letters to me in 1953-1954. . . . You have . . . unearthed evidence that will seriously undermine Gould's confidence in having any evidence against Teilhard in regard to what he (Teilhard) said in his letters to me."<ref name=":2" /> She wrote: "Gould's method of presenting his main argument might be called ''inferred intent'' - projecting onto Teilhard ways of thinking and acting that have no evidential base and are completely foreign to all we know of Teilhard. With Gould it seems that the guilty verdict came first, then he created a persona to fit the crime.”

===Peter Medawar===
In 1961, British immunologist and Nobel laureate [[Peter Medawar]] wrote a scornful review of ''The Phenomenon of Man'' for the journal ''[[Mind (journal)|Mind]]'': "the greater part of it [...] is nonsense, tricked out with a variety of metaphysical conceits, and its author can be excused of dishonesty only on the grounds that before deceiving others he has taken great pains to deceive himself. [...] Teilhard practiced an intellectually unexacting kind of science [...]. He has no grasp of what makes a logical argument or what makes for proof. He does not even preserve the common decencies of scientific writing, though his book is professedly a scientific treatise. [...] Teilhard habitually and systematically cheats with words [...], uses in metaphor words like energy, tension, force, impetus, and dimension as if they retained the weight and thrust of their special scientific usages. [...] It is the style that creates the illusion of content."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Medawar |first=P.&nbsp;B. |author-link=Peter Medawar |year=1961 |title=Critical Notice |url=http://bactra.org/Medawar/phenomenon-of-man.html |journal=[[Mind (journal)|Mind]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |volume=70 |issue=277 |pages=99–106 |doi=10.1093/mind/LXX.277.99}}</ref>

In 2014, Donald Wayne Viney evaluated Medawar's review and concluded that the case made against Teilhard was "remarkably thin, marred by misrepresentations and elementary philosophical blunders."<ref>Viney, Donald Wayne, "Teilhard, Medawar, and the New Atheism," in Ilia Delio ed., ''From Teilhard To Omega: Co-creating an Unfinished Universe''. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2014, p. 128.</ref> These defects, Viney noted, were uncharacteristic of Medawar's other work.

In another response, [[John Allen Grim]] said when Teilhard "wrote The Phenomenon of Man … he was using science there in a very broad sense. What he was really looking for was to be actually more radically empirical than conventional science is. Conventional science leaves out so much that's really there, especially our own subjectivity and some of the other things that are qualitative and value laden that are going on in the world. That science … has abstracted from values, meaning, subjectivity, purpose, God, and talked only about physical causation. Teilhard knew this, because when he wrote his [science journal] papers, he didn't bring God, value and so forth into it. But when he wrote The Phenomenon, he was doing something different. But it's not against the spirit of science. It was to actually expand the empirical orientation of science to take into account things that science unfortunately leaves out, like consciousness, for example, which today, in a materialist worldview, doesn't even exist, and yet it's the most palpable experience that any of us has. So if you try to construct a worldview that leaves out something so vital and important as mind to subjectivity, then that's unempirical, that's irrelevant. What we need is a radically empirical approach to the world that includes within what he calls hyperphysics, the experience of consciousness and also the experiences of faith, religions.”<ref name="youtube.com"/>

===Richard Dawkins===
Evolutionary biologist and a [[New Atheism|New Atheist]] [[Richard Dawkins]] called Medawar's review "devastating" and ''The Phenomenon of Man'' "the quintessence of bad poetic science".<ref name="Dawkins2000">{{Cite book |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZudTchiioUoC&pg=PA320 |title=Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder |date=5 April 2000 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-547-34735-6 |pages=320ff}}</ref>

=== Karl Stern ===
[[Karl Stern]], the neurobiologist of the [[Montreal Neurological Institute]], wrote: "It happens so rarely that science and wisdom are blended as they were in the person of Teilhard de Chardin."

=== George Gaylord Simpson ===
[[George Gaylord Simpson]] felt that if Teilhard were right, the lifework "of Huxley, Dobzhansky, and hundreds of others was not only wrong, but meaningless", and was mystified by their public support for him.<ref name="BrowningAlioto1973">{{Cite book |last1=Browning |first1=Geraldine O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RHCqN_lM5bYC&pg=PA91 |title=Teilhard de Chardin: in Quest of the Perfection of Man: An International Symposium |last2=Joseph L. Alioto |last3=Seymour M. Farber |last4=University of California, San Francisco Medical Center |date=January 1973 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |isbn=978-0-8386-1258-3 |pages=91ff}}</ref> He considered Teilhard a friend and his work in paleontology extensive and important, but expressed strongly adverse views of his contributions as scientific theorist and philosopher.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Laporte |first=Léo F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jd0yGJ3nF9EC&pg=PA191 |title=George Gaylord Simpson: Paleontologist and Evolutionist |date=13 August 2013 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-50545-1 |pages=191ff}}</ref>

=== William G. Pollard ===
[[William G. Pollard]], the physicist and founder of the prestigious [[Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies]] (and its director until 1974), praised Teilhard’s work as "A fascinating and powerful presentation of the amazing fact of the emergence of man in the unfolding drama of the cosmos."<ref name=":5"/>

=== John Barrow and Frank Tipler ===
John Barrow and Frank Tipler, both physicists and cosmologists, base much of their work on Teilhard and use some of his key terms such as the Omega point. However, [[Manuel Alfonseca]], author of 50 books and 200 technical articles, said in an article in the quarterly [[Popular Science]]: "Barrow and Tipler have not understood Teilhard (apparently they have just read '<nowiki/>''The Phenomenon of Man''', at least this is the only work by Teilhard they mention). In fact, they have got everything backwards."

=== Wolfgang Smith ===
[[Wolfgang Smith]], an American scientist versed in Catholic theology, devotes an entire book to the critique of Teilhard's doctrine, which he considers neither scientific (assertions without proofs), nor Catholic (personal innovations), nor metaphysical (the "Absolute Being" is not yet absolute),<ref>Wolfgang Smith, ''Teilhardism and the New Religion: A Thorough Analysis of the Teachings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin'', Tan Books & Pub, Gastonia/NC, USA, 1988 (republished as ''Theistic Evolution'', Angelico Press, New York, 2012, 270 pages).</ref> and of which the following elements can be noted (all the words in quotation marks are Teilhard's, quoted by Smith):

==== Evolution ====
Smith claims that for Teilhard, evolution is not only a scientific theory but an irrefutable truth "immune from any subsequent contradiction by experience";<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''The Phenomenon of Man'', Harper & Row, New York, 1965, p. 140 – quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 2.</ref> it constitutes the foundation of his doctrine.<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 2.</ref> Matter becomes spirit and humanity moves towards a super-humanity thanks to complexification (physico-chemical, then biological, then human), socialization, scientific research and technological and cerebral development;<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 177, 201.</ref> the explosion of the first atomic bomb is one of its milestones,<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''The Phenomenon of Man'', ''Op. cit'', p. 149 – quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 243-244.</ref> while waiting for "the vitalization of matter by the creation of super-molecules, the remodeling of the human organism by means of hormones, control of heredity and sex by manipulation of [[genes]] and [[chromosomes]] [...]".<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''The Future of Mankind'', Harper & Row, New York, 1964, p. 149 – quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 243.</ref>

==== Matter and spirit ====
Teilhard maintains that the human spirit (which he identifies with the ''anima'' and not with the ''spiritus'') originates in a matter which becomes more and more complex until it produces life, then consciousness, then the consciousness of being conscious, holding that the immaterial can emerge from the material.<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 42-43.</ref> At the same time, he supports the idea of the presence of embryos of consciousness from the very genesis of the universe: "We are logically forced to assume the existence [...] of some sort of psyche" infinitely diffuse in the smallest particle.<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''The Phenomenon of Man'', ''Op. cit'', pp. 301-302 – quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 49-50.</ref>

==== Theology ====
Smith believes that since Teilhard affirms that "God creates evolutively", he denies the [[Book of Genesis]],<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 13, 19.</ref> not only because it attests that God created man, but that he created him in his own image, thus perfect and complete, then that man fell, that is to say the opposite of an ascending evolution.<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 137.</ref> That which is metaphysically and theologically "above" - symbolically speaking - becomes for Teilhard "ahead", yet to come;<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 69.</ref> even God, who is neither perfect nor timeless, evolves in symbiosis with the World,{{refn|group=note|"I see in the World a mysterious product of completion and fulfillment for the absolute Being himself." ''The Heart of Matter'', Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1979, p. 54 - quoted in Wolfgang Smith, ''Teilhardism and the New Religion'', Tan Books & Pub, Gastonia/NC, USA, 1988, p. 104.}} which Teilhard, a resolute [[pantheism|pantheist]],<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 110.</ref> venerates as the equal of the Divine.<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 127.</ref> As for Christ, not only is he there to activate the wheels of progress and complete the evolutionary ascent, but he himself evolves.{{refn|group=note|"It is Christ, in all truth, who saves, but should we not immediately add that at the same time it is Christ who is saved by evolution?" ''The Heart of Matter'', Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1979, p. 92 - quoted in Wolfgang Smith, ''Teilhardism and the New Religion'', Tan Books & Pub, Gastonia/NC, USA, 1988, p. 117.}}.<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 117, 127.</ref>

==== New religion ====
As he wrote to a cousin: "What dominates my interests increasingly is the effort to establish in me and define around me a new religion (call it a better Christianity, if you will)...",<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''Letters to Léontine Zanta'', Harper & Row, New York, 1965, p. 114 (letter of 26 January 1936) – quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 210.</ref> and elsewhere: "a Christianity re-incarnated for a second time in the spiritual energies of Matter".<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''The Heart of Matter'', Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1979, p. 96 – quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 22.</ref> The more Teilhard refines his theories, the more he emancipates himself from established Christian doctrine:<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 102.</ref> a "religion of the earth" must replace a "religion of heaven".<ref>P. Teilhard de Chardin, ''Science and Christ'', Collins, London, 1968, p. 120 – quoted in W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., p. 208.</ref> By their common faith in Man, he writes, Christians, [[Marxism|Marxists]], [[Darwinism|Darwinists]], materialists of all kinds will ultimately join around the same summit: the Christic [[Omega Point]].<ref>W. Smith, ''Op. cit''., pp. 22, 188.</ref>

=== Lucien Cuénot ===
[[Lucien Cuénot]], the biologist who proved that [[Mendelism]] applied to animals as well as plants through his experiments with mice, wrote: "Teilhard's greatness lay in this, that in a world ravaged by neurosis he provided an answer to out modern anguish and reconciled man with the cosmos and with himself by offering him an "ideal of humanity that, through a higher and consciously willed synthesis, would restore the instinctive equilibrium enjoyed in ages of primitive simplicity."<ref name=":5" /> Mendelism is a group of biological inheritance principles developed by the Catholic friar-scientist [[Gregor Mendel]]. Though for many years Mendelism was rejected by most biologists and other scientists, its principles - combined with the [[Boveri–Sutton chromosome theory]] of inheritance - eventually became the core of [[classical genetics]].

==Legacy==
[[Brian Swimme]] wrote "Teilhard was one of the first scientists to realize that the human and the universe are inseparable. The only universe we know about is a universe that brought forth the human."<ref>"Introduction" by Brian Swimme, in ''The Human Phenomenon'' by Teilhard de Chardin, trans. Sarah Appleton-Webber, Sussex Academic Press, Brighton and Portland, Oregon, 1999 p. xv.</ref>

[[George Gaylord Simpson]] named the most primitive and ancient genus of true [[primate]], the [[Eocene]] genus ''[[Teilhardina]]''.

On June 25, 1947 Teilhard was honored by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for "Outstanding services to the intellectual and scientific influence of France" and was promoted to the rank of Officer in the ''Legion of Honor''. In 1950, Teilhard was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Back to France, 1946 - 1951 |url=http://tcreek1.jimdofree.com/6-back-to-france/ |access-date=2023-12-24 |website=Teilhard de Chardin |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Influence on arts and culture ===
Teilhard and his work continue to influence the arts and culture.

* Characters based on Teilhard appear in several novels, including Jean Telemond in [[Morris West]]'s ''[[The Shoes of the Fisherman (novel)|The Shoes of the Fisherman]]''<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moss |first=R.F. |date=Spring 1978 |title=Suffering, sinful Catholics |journal=The Antioch Review |publisher=Antioch Review |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=170–181 |doi=10.2307/4638026 |jstor=4638026}}</ref> (mentioned by name and quoted by [[Oskar Werner]] playing Fr. Telemond in [[The Shoes of the Fisherman (movie)|the movie version]] of the novel). 
* In [[Dan Simmons]]' 1989–97 ''[[Hyperion Cantos]]'', Teilhard de Chardin has been canonized a [[saint]] in the far future.
* His work inspires the [[anthropologist]] priest character, Paul Duré. When Duré becomes [[Pope]], he takes ''Teilhard I'' as his [[regnal name]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Simmons |first=Dan |url=https://archive.org/details/fallofhyperion00simm_0/page/464 |title=The Fall of Hyperion |date=1 February 1990 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0-385-26747-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/fallofhyperion00simm_0/page/464 464]}}</ref> 
* Teilhard appears as a minor character in the play ''Fake'' by [[Eric Simonson]], staged by Chicago's [[Steppenwolf Theatre Company]] in 2009, involving a fictional solution to the infamous Piltdown Man hoax.

There is a broad range of references to Teilhard ranging from quotations, as when an auto mechanic cites Teilhard in [[Philip K. Dick]]'s ''[[A Scanner Darkly]]''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dick |first=Philip K. |url=https://archive.org/details/scannerdarkly00dick/page/127 |title=A Scanner Darkly |publisher=Vintage |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-679-73665-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/scannerdarkly00dick/page/127 127]}}</ref> to philosophical underpinning of an entire plot, as Teilhard's work does in [[Julian May]]'s 1987–94 [[Galactic Milieu Series]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=May |first=Julian |title=Jack the Bodiless |date=11 April 1994 |publisher=Random House Value Publishing |isbn=978-0-517-11644-9 |page=287}}</ref>

* Teilhard also plays a major role in [[Annie Dillard]]'s 1999 ''For the Time Being''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dillard |first=Annie |title=For the Time Being |date=8 February 2000 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0-375-70347-8}}</ref> 
* Teilhard is mentioned by name and the Omega Point briefly explained in [[Arthur C. Clarke]]'s and [[Stephen Baxter (author)|Stephen Baxter]]'s ''[[The Light of Other Days]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clarke |first=Arthur c. |title=The Light of Other Days |publisher=Tom Doherty Associates, LLC |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8125-7640-5 |page=331}}</ref> 
* The title of the short story ''[[Everything That Rises Must Converge (short story)|Everything That Rises Must Converge]]'' and the [[Everything That Rises Must Converge|eponymous story collection]] by [[Flannery O'Connor]] is a reference to Teilhard's work. 
* The American novelist [[Don DeLillo]]'s 2010 novel ''[[Point Omega]]'' borrows its title and some of its ideas from Teilhard de Chardin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=DeLillo |first=Don |title=Point Omega |publisher=Scribner |year=2010}}</ref> 
* [[Robert Wright (journalist)|Robert Wright]], in his book ''[[Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny]]'', compares his own naturalistic thesis that biological and cultural evolution are directional and, possibly, purposeful, with Teilhard's ideas.
* Teilhard's work also inspired philosophical ruminations by Italian laureate architect [[Paolo Soleri]] and Mexican writer Margarita Casasús Altamirano
* Robert Hamblin's book of poems, Dust and Light (Ars Omnia Press, 2012), treats Teilhard's life and work.

In artworks:

* French painter [[Alfred Manessier]]'s ''L'Offrande de la terre ou Hommage à Teilhard de Chardin''
* American sculptor [[Frederick Hart (sculptor)|Frederick Hart]]'s [[acrylic glass|acrylic]] sculpture ''The Divine Milieu: Homage to Teilhard de Chardin''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Divine Milieu by Frederick Hart |url=http://www.jeanstephengalleries.com/hart-divine.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090725154214/http://www.jeanstephengalleries.com/hart-divine.html |archive-date=25 July 2009 |access-date=19 April 2009 |publisher=www.jeanstephengalleries.com}}</ref>  
* A sculpture of the Omega Point by Henry Setter, with a quote from Teilhard de Chardin, can be found at the entrance to the Roesch Library at the [[University of Dayton]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=UDQuickly Past Scribblings |url=https://udayton.edu/magazine/2021/03/art-among-us.php}}</ref> 
* The Spanish painter [[Salvador Dalí]] was fascinated by Teilhard de Chardin and the Omega Point theory. His 1959 painting ''[[The Ecumenical Council (painting)|The Ecumenical Council]]'' is said to represent the "interconnectedness" of the Omega Point.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Gallery of Victoria Educational Resource |url=http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/dali/salvador/resources/vce_FINAL.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704200748/http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/dali/salvador/resources/vce_FINAL.pdf |archive-date=4 July 2009}}</ref>
* [[Edmund Rubbra]]'s 1968 Symphony No. 8 is titled ''Hommage à Teilhard de Chardin''.

''The Embracing Universe'', an oratorio for choir and 7 instruments, composed by [[Justin Grounds]] to a libretto by Fred LaHaye saw its first performance in 2019. It is based on the life and thought of Teilhard de Chardin.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 June 2019 |title=When life finds its way |url=https://www.westcorkpeople.ie/culture/music/music-box/when-life-finds-its-way/ |access-date=16 November 2020 |website=www.westcorkpeople.ie}}</ref>

College campuses:

* A building at the [[University of Manchester]], 
* residence dormitories at [[Gonzaga University]], 
* residence dormitories at [[Seattle University]].

''The De Chardin Project'', a play celebrating Teilhard's life, ran from 20 November to 14 December 2014 in Toronto, Canada.<ref name="Play and film">{{Cite journal |last=Ventureyra |first=Scott |date=20 January 2015 |title=Challenging the Rehabilitation of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |url=http://www.crisismagazine.com/2015/challenging-rehabilitation-pierre-teilhard-de-chardin |journal=Crisis Magazine |publisher=Sophia Institute Press |access-date=19 June 2015}}</ref> ''The Evolution of Teilhard de Chardin'', a documentary film on Teilhard's life, was scheduled for release in 2015.<ref name="Play and film" />

Founded in 1978, George Addair based much of Omega Vector on Teilhard's work.

The American physicist [[Frank J. Tipler]] has further developed Teilhard's [[Omega Point]] concept in two controversial books, [[The Physics of Immortality (book)|''The Physics of Immortality'']] and the more theologically based Physics of Christianity.<ref>{{Citation |last=Krauss |first=Lawrence |title=More Dangerous Than Nonsense |date=12 May 2007 |url=http://genesis1.asu.edu/Tiplerreview.pdf |journal=New Scientist |volume=194 |issue=2603 |page=53 |df=dmy-all |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111101161611/http://genesis1.asu.edu/Tiplerreview.pdf |doi=10.1016/S0262-4079(07)61199-3 |archive-date=1 November 2011 |url-status=dead}}.</ref> While keeping the central premise of Teilhard's Omega Point (i.e. a universe evolving towards a maximum state of complexity and consciousness) Tipler has supplanted some of the more mystical/ theological elements of the OPT with his own scientific and mathematical observations (as well as some elements borrowed from Freeman [[Dyson's eternal intelligence]] theory).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMkp1kZN5n4|title=white gardenia - interview w/ frank tipler (discussion on richard dawkins stephen hawking more..|date=13 November 2016 |accessdate=26 September 2022|via=www.youtube.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://turingchurch.com/2012/09/26/interview-with-frank-j-tipler-nov-2002/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003030535/http://turingchurch.com/2012/09/26/interview-with-frank-j-tipler-nov-2002/|url-status=dead|title=Q&A with Frank Tipler|archivedate=3 October 2017|accessdate=26 September 2022}}</ref>

In 1972, the Uruguayan priest [[Juan Luis Segundo]], in his five-volume series ''A Theology for Artisans of a New Humanity,'' wrote that Teilhard "noticed the profound analogies existing between the conceptual elements used by the natural sciences—all of them being based on the hypothesis of a general evolution of the universe."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Segundo |first=Juan Luis |title=Evolution and Guilt |date=1972 |publisher=Orbis Books |isbn=978-0-88344-480-1 |location=Maryknoll, N.Y. |page=13}}</ref>

=== Influence of his cousin Marguerite Teilard Chambon ===
{{Interlanguage link|Marguerite Teillard-Chambon|fr}}, (alias Claude Aragonnès) was a French writer who edited and had published three volumes of correspondence with her cousin, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, "La genèse d'une pensée" ("The Making of a Mind") being the last, after her own death in 1959.<ref name="letters1">{{Cite book |last=de Chardin |first=Teilhard |title=The Making of a Mind: Letters from a Soldier-Priest 1914–1919 |date=1965 |publisher=Collins |location=London}}</ref> She furnished each with an introduction. Marguerite, a year older than Teilhard, was considered among those who knew and understood him best. They had shared a childhood in [[Auvergne]]; she it was who encouraged him to undertake a doctorate in science at the Sorbonne; she eased his entry into the [[Institut Catholique de Paris|Catholic Institute]], through her connection to [[Emmanuel de Margerie]] and she introduced him to the intellectual life of Paris. Throughout the First World War, she corresponded with him, acting as a "midwife" to his thinking, helping his thought to emerge and honing it. In September 1959 she participated in a gathering organised at [[Saint-Babel]], near [[Issoire]], devoted to Teilhard's philosophical contribution. On the way home to [[Chambon-sur-Lac]], she was fatally injured in a [[road traffic accident]]. Her sister, Alice, completed the final preparations for the publication of the final volume of her cousin Teilhard's wartime letters.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Lettres de voyage 1923-1939, de Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |date=1956 |publisher=Bernard Grasset |editor-last=Teillard-Chambon |editor-first=Marguerite |location=Paris |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Nouvelles lettres de voyage 1939-1955, de Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |date=1957 |publisher=Bernard Grasset |editor-last=Teillard-Chambon |editor-first=Marguerite |location=Paris |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Genèse d'une pensée, Lettres 1914-1919, de Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |date=1961 |publisher=Bernard Grasset |editor-last=Teillard-Chambon |editor-first=Marguerite |location=Paris |language=fr}}</ref>

===Influence on the New Age movement===
Teilhard has had a profound influence on the [[New Age]] movements and has been described as "perhaps the man most responsible for the spiritualization of evolution in a global and cosmic context".<ref name="AnkerbergWeldon1996">{{Cite book |last1=Ankerberg |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SghdYBbMds0C&pg=PA661 |title=Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs |last2=John Weldon |publisher=Harvest House Publishers |year=1996 |isbn=978-1-56507-160-5 |pages=661–}}</ref>

===Alleged support of eugenics and racism===

Teilhard has been criticized by the theologian John P. Slattery for allegedly incorporating elements of [[scientific racism]], [[social Darwinism]], and [[eugenics]] into his work.<ref name=JPS>{{Citation |last=Slattery |first=John P. |date=21 May 2018 |title=Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's Legacy of Eugenics and Racism Can't Be Ignored |publisher=[[Religion Dispatches]] |url=https://religiondispatches.org/pierre-teilhard-de-chardins-legacy-of-eugenics-and-racism-cant-be-ignored}}</ref> He argued in 1929 that [[Race (human categorization)|racial]] [[Social inequality|inequality]] was rooted in biological difference: "Do the yellows—[the Chinese]—have the same human value as the whites? [Fr.] Licent and many missionaries say that their present inferiority is due to their long history of Paganism. I'm afraid that this is only a 'declaration of pastors.' Instead, the cause seems to be the natural racial foundation…"<ref name=JPS/> In a letter from 1936 explaining his Omega Point conception, he rejected both the [[Fascism|Fascist]] quest for [[Political particularism|particularistic]] hegemony and the Christian/[[Communism|Communist]] insistence on [[egalitarianism]]: "As not all ethnic groups have the same value, they must be dominated, which does not mean they must be despised—quite the reverse … In other words, ''at one and the same time'' there should be official recognition of: (1) the primacy/priority of the earth over nations; (2) the inequality of peoples and races. Now the ''second'' point is currently reviled by Communism … and the Church, and the ''first'' point is similarly reviled by the Fascist systems (and, of course, by less gifted peoples!)".<ref name=JPS/> In the essay 'Human Energy' (1937), he asked, "What fundamental attitude … should the advancing wing of humanity take to fixed or definitely unprogressive ethnical groups? The earth is a closed and limited surface. To what extent should it tolerate, racially or nationally, areas of lesser activity? More generally still, how should we judge the efforts we lavish in all kinds of hospitals on saving what is so often no more than one of life's rejects? … To what extent should not the development of the strong … take precedence over the preservation of the weak?"<ref name=JPS/> The theologian John P. Slattery interprets this last remark to suggest "[[Genocide|genocidal]] practices for the sake of eugenics".<ref name=JPS/>

Even after [[World War II]] Teilhard continued to argue for racial and individual eugenics in the name of human progress, and denounced the [[UNESCO statements on race|United Nations declaration of the Equality of Races]] (1950) as "scientifically useless" and "practically dangerous" in a letter to the [[UNESCO|agency]]'s director [[Jaime Torres Bodet]]. In 1953, he expressed his frustration at the Church's failure to embrace the scientific possibilities for optimising [[human nature]], including by the separation of sexuality from reproduction (a notion later developed e.g. by the [[Second-wave feminism|second-wave feminist]] [[Shulamith Firestone]] in her 1970 book ''[[The Dialectic of Sex]]''), and postulated "the absolute right … to try everything right to the end—even in the matter of [[Human subject research|human biology]]".<ref name=JPS/>

The theologian [[John F. Haught]] has defended Teilhard from Slattery's charge of "persistent attraction to racism, fascism, and genocidal ideas" by pointing out that Teilhard's philosophy was not based on racial exclusion but rather on union through differentiation, and that Teilhard took seriously the human responsibility for continuing to remake the world. With regard to union through differentiation, he underlined the importance of understanding properly a quotation used by Slattery in which Teilhard writes, "I hate [[nationalism]] and its apparent [[Reactionary|regressions to the past]]. But I am very interested in the primacy it returns to the collective. Could a passion for 'the race' represent a first draft of the Spirit of the Earth?"<ref>{{Citation |last=Haught |first=John F. |author-link=John F. Haught |title=Trashing Teilhard |publisher=[[Commonweal (magazine)|Commonweal]] |date=12 February 2019 |accessdate=26 September 2022 |url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/trashing-teilhard}}</ref> Writing from China in October 1936, shortly after the outbreak of the [[Spanish Civil War]], Teilhard expressed his stance towards the new political movement in Europe, "I am alarmed at the attraction that various kinds of Fascism exert on intelligent (?) people who can see in them nothing but the hope of returning to the Neolithic". He felt that the choice between what he called "the American, the Italian, or the Russian type" of [[political economy]] (i.e. liberal capitalism, Fascist [[corporatism]], [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] Communism) had only "technical" relevance to his search for overarching unity and a philosophy of action.{{sfn|Cuénot|1965|p=216}}

===Other===
[[Fritjof Capra]]'s [[systems theory]] book [[The Turning Point (book)|''The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture'']] positively contrasts Teilhard to Darwinian evolution.

==Bibliography==
The dates in parentheses are the dates of first publication in French and English. Most of these works were written years earlier, but Teilhard's ecclesiastical order forbade him to publish them because of their controversial nature.  The essay collections are organized by subject rather than date, thus each one typically spans many years.

* ''Le Phénomène Humain'' (1955), written 1938–40, scientific exposition of Teilhard's theory of evolution.
** ''[[The Phenomenon of Man]]'' (1959), Harper Perennial 1976: {{ISBN|978-0-06-090495-1}}. Reprint 2008: {{ISBN|978-0-06-163265-5}}.
** ''[[The Human Phenomenon]]'' (1999), Brighton: Sussex Academic, 2003: {{ISBN|978-1-902210-30-8}}.
* ''Letters From a Traveler'' (1956; English translation 1962), written 1923–55.
* ''Le Groupe Zoologique Humain'' (1956), written 1949, more detailed presentation of Teilhard's theories.
** ''Man's Place in Nature'' (English translation 1966).
* ''Le Milieu Divin'' (1957), spiritual book written 1926–27, in which the author seeks to offer a way for everyday life, i.e. the secular, to be divinized.
** ''[[The Divine Milieu]]'' (1960) Harper Perennial 2001: {{ISBN|978-0-06-093725-6}}.
* ''L'Avenir de l'Homme'' (1959) essays written 1920–52, on the evolution of consciousness (noosphere).
** ''The Future of Man'' (1964) Image 2004: {{ISBN|978-0-385-51072-1}}.
* ''Hymn of the Universe'' (1961; English translation 1965) Harper and Row: {{ISBN|978-0-06-131910-5}}, mystical/spiritual essays and thoughts written 1916–55.
* ''L'Energie Humaine'' (1962), essays written 1931–39, on morality and love.
** ''Human Energy'' (1969) Harcort Brace Jovanovich {{ISBN|978-0-15-642300-7}}.
* ''L'Activation de l'Energie'' (1963), sequel to ''Human Energy'', essays written 1939–55 but not planned for publication, about the universality and irreversibility of human action.
** ''Activation of Energy'' (1970), Harvest/HBJ 2002: {{ISBN|978-0-15-602817-2}}.
* ''Je M'Explique'' (1966) Jean-Pierre Demoulin, editor {{ISBN|978-0-685-36593-9}}, "The Essential Teilhard"&nbsp;— selected passages from his works.
** ''Let Me Explain'' (1970) Harper and Row {{ISBN|978-0-06-061800-1}}, Collins/Fontana 1973: {{ISBN|978-0-00-623379-4}}.
* ''Christianity and Evolution'', Harvest/HBJ 2002: {{ISBN|978-0-15-602818-9}}.
* ''The Heart of the Matter'', Harvest/HBJ 2002: {{ISBN|978-0-15-602758-8}}.
* ''Toward the Future'', Harvest/HBJ 2002: {{ISBN|978-0-15-602819-6}}.
* ''The Making of a Mind: Letters from a Soldier-Priest 1914–1919'', Collins (1965), Letters written during wartime.
* ''Writings in Time of War'', Collins (1968) composed of spiritual essays written during wartime.  One of the few books of Teilhard to receive an imprimatur.
* ''Vision of the Past'', Collins (1966) composed of mostly scientific essays published in the French science journal ''Etudes''.
* ''The Appearance of Man'', Collins (1965) composed of mostly scientific writings published in the French science journal ''Etudes''.
* ''Letters to Two Friends 1926–1952'', Fontana (1968). Composed of personal letters on varied subjects including his understanding of death. See {{Cite book |title=Letters to Two Friends 1926–1952 | translator-last=Weaver| translator-first=Helen |translator-link=Helen Weaver |year=1968 |publisher=New American Library |isbn=978-0-85391-143-2 |oclc=30268456}}
* ''Letters to [[Léontine Zanta]]'', Collins (1969).
* ''Correspondence / Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Maurice Blondel'', Herder and Herder (1967) This correspondence also has both the ''[[imprimatur]]'' and ''[[nihil obstat]]''.
* {{Cite journal |last=de Chardin |first=P T |year=1952 |title=On the zoological position and the evolutionary significance of Australopithecines |publication-date=Mar 1952 |volume=14 |issue=5 |pages=208–10 |doi=10.1111/j.2164-0947.1952.tb01101.x |pmid=14931535 |periodical=Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences}}
* {{Cite journal |last1=de Terra |first1=H |last2=de Chardin |first2=PT |last3=Paterson |first3=TT |year=1936 |title=Joint geological and prehistoric studies of the Late Cenozoic in India |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_science_1936-03-06_83_2149/page/232 |journal=Science |publication-date=6 March 1936 |volume=83 |issue=2149 |pages=233–236 |bibcode=1936Sci....83..233D |doi=10.1126/science.83.2149.233-a |pmid=17809311}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Catholicism|Christianity|France|Palaeontology|Philosophy}}
* [[Thomas Berry]]
* [[Henri Bergson]]
* [[Henri Breuil]]
* [[Henri de Lubac]]
* [[John Polkinghorne]]
* [[Georges Lemaître]]
* [[Edouard Le Roy]]
* [[Law of Complexity/Consciousness]]
* [[Philosophy of science]]
* [[List of Jesuit scientists]]
* [[List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics]]
* [[List of science and religion scholars]]

==Notes==
{{Ibid|date=September 2023}}
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|40em}}
* [[Amir Aczel]], ''The Jesuit and the Skull: Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution and the Search for Peking Man'' (Riverhead Hardcover, 2007)
* [[Pope Benedict XVI]], ''The Spirit of the Liturgy'' (Ignatian Press 2000)
* [[Pope Benedict XVI]], ''Introduction to Christianity'' (Ignatius Press, Revised edition, 2004)
* Paul Churchland, "Man and Cosmos"
* John Cowburn, ''Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Selective Summary of His Life'' (Mosaic Press 2013)
* {{citation |last=Cuénot |first=Claude |title=Teilhard de Chardin: A Biographical Study |translator=Vincent Colimore |location=Baltimore |publisher=Helicon |year=1965 |isbn= |url=https://archive.org/details/teilharddechardi0000clau_r2h7}} (UK edition: London: [[Burns & Oates]], 1965; original French: ''Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: les grandes étapes de son évolution'', Paris: [[Plon (publisher)|Plon]], 1958)
* {{citation |last=Cuénot |first=Claude |title=Science and Faith in Teilhard de Chardin |location=London |publisher=Garstone Press |year=1967}}
* [[Andre Dupleix]], ''15 Days of Prayer with Teilhard de Chardin'' (New City Press, 2008)
* [http://www.laceweb.org.au/rhp.htm Enablers, T.C., 2015. 'Hominising – Realising Human Potential']
* Robert Faricy, ''Teilhard de Chardin's Theology of Christian in the World'' ([[Sheed and Ward]] 1968)
* Robert Faricy, ''The Spirituality of Teilhard de Chardin'' (Collins 1981, Harper & Row 1981)
* Robert Faricy and Lucy Rooney, ''Praying with Teilhard de Chardin''(Queenship 1996)
* David Grumett, ''Teilhard de Chardin: Theology, Humanity and Cosmos'' (Peeters 2005)
* [[Dietrich von Hildebrand]], ''Teilhard de Chardin:  A False Prophet'' (Franciscan Herald Press 1970)
* [[Dietrich von Hildebrand]], ''Trojan Horse in the City of God''
* [[Dietrich von Hildebrand]], ''Devastated Vineyard''
* Thomas M. King, ''Teilhard's Mass; Approaches to "The Mass on the World"'' (Paulist Press, 2005)
* [[Ursula King (academic)|Ursula King]], ''Spirit of Fire: The Life and Vision of Teilhard de Chardin'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20220328113748/http://www.maryknollsocietymall.org/description.cfm?ISBN=978-1-57075-177-6 maryknollsocietymall.org] (Orbis Books, 1996)
* Richard W. Kropf, ''Teilhard, Scripture and Revelation: A Study of Teilhard de Chardin's Reinterpretation of Pauline Themes'' (Associated University Press, 1980)
* David H. Lane, ''The Phenomenon of Teilhard:  Prophet for a New Age'' (Mercer University Press)
* [[Henri de Lubac|de Lubac, Henri]], ''The Religion of Teilhard de Chardin'' (Image Books, 1968)
* [[Henri de Lubac|de Lubac, Henri]], ''The Faith of Teilhard de Chardin'' (Burnes and Oates, 1965)
* [[Henri de Lubac|de Lubac, Henri]], ''The Eternal Feminine: A Study of the Text of Teilhard de Chardin'' (Collins, 1971)
* [[Henri de Lubac|de Lubac, Henri]], ''Teilhard Explained'' (Paulist Press, 1968)
* [[Helmut de Terra]], ''Memories of Teilhard de Chardin'' (Harper and Row and Wm Collins Sons & Co., 1964)
* Mary and Ellen Lukas, ''Teilhard'' (Doubleday, 1977)
* Jean Maalouf ''Teilhard de Chardin, Reconciliation in Christ'' (New City Press, 2002)
* [[George A. Maloney]], ''The Cosmic Christ: From Paul to Teilhard'' ([[Sheed and Ward]], 1968)
* Mooney, Christopher, ''Teilhard de Chardin and the Mystery of Christ'' (Image Books, 1968)
* Murray, Michael H. ''The Thought of Teilhard de Chardin'' (Seabury Press, N.Y., 1966)
* [[Robert J. O'Connell]], ''Teilhard's Vision of the Past: The Making of a Method'', (Fordham University Press, 1982)
* Noel Keith Roberts, ''From Piltdown Man to Point Omega: the evolutionary theory of Teilhard de Chardin'' (New York, Peter Lang, 2000)
* James F. Salmon, 'Pierre Teilhard de Chardin' in ''[[The Blackwell Companion to Science and Christianity]]'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012)
* Louis M. Savory, ''Teilhard de Chardin&nbsp;– The Divine Milieu Explained: A Spirituality for the 21st Century'' (Paulist Press, 2007)
* [[Robert Speaight]], ''The Life of Teilhard de Chardin'' (Harper and Row, 1967)
* [[K. D. Sethna]], ''Teilhard de Chardin and [[Sri Aurobindo]]: a focus on fundamentals'', Bharatiya Vidya Prakasan, Varanasi (1973)
* K. D. Sethna, ''The Spirituality of the Future: A search apropos of R. C. Zaehner's study in Sri Aurobindo and Teilhard De Chardin''. Fairleigh Dickinson University 1981. 
* {{citation |title=Evolution, Marxism and Christianity: Studies in the Teilhardian Synthesis |editor-last=Towers |editor-first=Bernard |editor2-last=Dyson |editor2-first=Anthony |editor2-link=Anthony Dyson (priest) |location=London |publisher=Garnstone Press |year=1967 |isbn=9780900391064 |url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionmarxism0000unse}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Teilhard de Chardin}}
{{Wikiquote}}

===Pro===
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Pierre Teilhard de Chardin}}
* [http://teilhard.com/ Teilhard de Chardin]—A site devoted to the ideas of Teilhard de Chardin
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20101226090309/http://www.mnhn.fr/teilhard/indexE.html The Teilhard de Chardin Foundation]
* [http://www.teilharddechardin.org/ The American Teilhard Association]
* [http://tcreek1.jimdo.com Teilhard de Chardin]—A personal website

===Contra===
* [https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/monitum-on-the-writings-of-fr-teilhard-de-chardin-sj-2144 Warning Regarding the Writings of Father Teilhard de Chardin] The Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, 1962
* {{Cite journal |last=Medawar |first=Peter |year=1961 |title=A review of ''The Phenomenon of Man'' |url=http://bactra.org/Medawar/phenomenon-of-man.html |journal=Mind |volume=70 |pages=99–106 |doi=10.1093/mind/LXX.277.99}}
* McCarthy, John F. [http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt25.html#II "A review of ''Teilhardism and the New Religion'' by Wolfgang Smith"], 1989

===Other===
* [http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/geologyOfBritain/archives/piltdownMan/home.html Web pages and timeline about the Piltdown forgery hosted by the British Geological Survey]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnCQHIeucNw "Teilhard de Chardin: His Importance in the 21st Century" - Georgetown University - June 23, 2015]

{{Jesuits|state=collapsed}}
{{History of Catholic theology}}
{{History of the Roman Catholic Church|collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teilhard De Chardin, Pierre}}
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