Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

[jazzbaby1]

Is anyone here familiar with his work? He was a Jesuit, paleontologist, biologist and philosopher; he died in 1955. I’m wary of reading his entry in Wikipedia and I can’t find an entry for him in the online Catholic Encyclopedia. Was his work approved by the magisterium?

 

[mwmroe]

If you go to this link and scroll down you’ll find Pierre Teilhard de Chardin under New Age Teachers. A good book that touches briefly on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is Catholics and the New Age by Fr. Mitch Pacwa. angelfire.com/ms/seanie/newage/nindex.html

 

[jazzbaby1]

Thank you!

 

[Dale_M]

The Vatican warned against the writings of Teilhard de Chardin in 1962, and repeated the warning in 1981. catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?id=3160&repos=1&subrepos=&searchid=46984

There aren’t any details in those announcements, but they are worth noting.

 

[mwmroe]

Your welcome.

 

[mwmroe]

Here’s the link I originally got it from scripturecatholic.com/.
If you scroll down to Other Religions there you’ll find it under Reincarnation / New Age.

 

[MarkR]

Incidentally, he’s who the old priest (Father Merrin) was based on in The Exorcist.

I’m currently reading a book called ‘Theology in History’ (Ignatius Press) by Father Henri de Lubac that contains an entire, long section on Chardin’s thought. De Lubac was a Jesuit and one of the theological mentors to both JP2 (who had him made a Cardinal) and B-16. I’ve never read Chardin, but knowing De Lubac, I’ll bet that his thought is presented as brilliant but flawed. Haven’t gotten to that section yet (the book is huge), but I’ll post the gist of it when I do if you’d like. I’m a revert and ultra-orthodox, so I can usually pick out where/when they go off the rails.

As far as I know, Chardin died in communion with the Church, so it might be a case of overzealousness or misinterpretation of his teaching by people with an agenda. He might have corrected or withdrawn what the Church condemned as well. Don’t know.