Teilard de Chardin

[jollybird]

What does the Church teach or say about the teachings of Teillard de Chardin? It is my understanding that he taught that humanity is evolving into a different form.

Is he still controversial or are his teachings now accepted by the church?

Thanks

 

[Leon_Bloy]

What does the Church teach or say about the teachings of Teillard de Chardin? It is my understanding that he taught that humanity is evolving into a different form.

Is he still controversial or are his teachings now accepted by the church?

Thanks

I would have to check up on this, but my understanding is that at least some of his theology was condemned.

Personally, I stay away from it. It was very fashionable among some intellectual Catholics in the 1950s and beyond.

 

[Dorothy]

What does the Church teach or say about the teachings of Teillard de Chardin? It is my understanding that he taught that humanity is evolving into a different form.

Is he still controversial or are his teachings now accepted by the church?

Thanks

Here is an article about the monitum on de Chardin’s writings:

catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3160&CFID=121528715&CFTOKEN=11742805

The Church does this for the protection of its members.

 

[jollybird]

I thought it was condemned but wanted to be sure. How can I find out what about his teachings are problematic?

I have a friend who idolizes the guy and I would like to have a response.

 

[Dorothy]

I thought it was condemned but wanted to be sure. How can I find out what about his teachings are problematic?

I have a friend who idolizes the guy and I would like to have a response.

I don’t see “condemned” used as a word to describe his writings, but I did not read the entire article. I do know that there is a “warning” (monitum) on his writings, as they are not theologically correct and can lead people astray. Here is another article:

catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=7726&CFID=125437394&CFTOKEN=38564165

Some people have been impressed by his writng and were not aware of the implications.

The Church is not against science nor afraid of it…but at times some theologians can be very dogmatic about scientific theories and run with them as though they were the absolute truth.

 

[jollybird]

Sadly my friend is one who understand the implications or maybe I should say more accurately revels in the controversy in what I see as an attempt to modernize the church. He is also very upset with the Mass revisions but fails to acknowledge they are a return to a more accurate translation.

 

[AuroraB]

I remember being in Convent school in the 1950’s and one of the nuns Mother Lucy enthusing about “Le Milieu Divin” one of TDC’s books. I tried it but never found it very helpful. Some of the words he uses were beyond me. (Mother Lucy was no feminist left leaning nun by the way, her teachings were very solid).
At that time I don’t think the Church had said anything officially about his writings.

However some years later I saw a famous quotation of his for the first time and still find it inspiring:

“Some day, after we have harnessed the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we will harness for God the energies of love, and then for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”

That reminds me of Jesus’ saying: “I have come to set a fire on earth and how I wish it were blazing already.”

Both quotes are from memory but I think they are accurate.

 

[choliks]

I suggest to look at his writings not with a theologian’s but with a philosopher’s eye.

 

[Dorothy]

Sadly my friend is one who understand the implications or maybe I should say more accurately revels in the controversy in what I see as an attempt to modernize the church. He is also very upset with the Mass revisions but fails to acknowledge they are a return to a more accurate translation.

If your friend finds it difficult to listen to what you have to say without getting defensive and irritable, then it is best to not discuss those things with him. You can say to him that it is best that the two of you do not discuss those things.

Thankfully, as you wrote, we have returned to a more accurate translation. It helps much when the faithful just accept it without grumbling. (instead of being like the Israelites who grumbled in the desert ) We can accept it as a discipline so that there is order and unity in the Church.

Live your faith in the peace of Jesus and think only of pleasing him.