Teilhard de Chardin and Evolution
All too often there is a select group, a privileged group, who learn, explore, and debate in a university cluster. Knowledge can never be understated, neither can the opportunity for growth. Humans evolve. The universe evolves. Catholicism evolves. At times knowledge of the revolving Catholic faith becomes restricted to a select group who either fail to discuss outside the cluster of safety or the elite or choose to ignore the congregation because it is easier than to explain. This paper is a reflection of growth and knowledge that needs to be understood for Catholics to defend and to debate their religion. It is a minute detail, but important none the less.
This paper will demonstrate how Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest contributed to Catholicism in his understanding of evolution which is Catholic teaching today. This evolution is widely known as "Darwin's Theory of Evolution". Who Teilhard de Chardin was, what the theory of evolution is and how it is relevant to Roman Catholicism in an evolutionary world will be explained.
Static World vs Dynamic : Evolution
If a juggler has three balls it is important that they are each of equivalent weight. If not, the balance is affected and the balls fall. Think of three balls as one being the world, one being God, and the other being humanity. In theology one may understand our evolving state by utilizing this concept. We live in a developing universe. There was a time of nature gods, there was a mythology, but not a history and therefore a divine purpose could not be declared.
By the time Christianity appeared, the Roman world would have been entirely familiar with the thought that the universe might have gradually come to be as it is.
In the year 1616, the Holy Office declared that the sun is the center of the universe, and consequently does not change place and that the earth is not the center of the universe and is not motionless, but is in motion as a whole and its daily rotation. We know with absolute physical certainty, that the stellar universe is not centred on the earth, and that terrestrial life is not centred on mankind
From Early Times
The average Catholic has no true understanding of how their religion originated and how this has changed throughout the centuries. By understanding this concept there is a better understanding of how humanity has evolved and thus continues to evolve.
The primary focus of the Old Testament is about salvation. In Israel's faith, redemption was primary and creation secondary. This was not only in order of theological importance, but also in order of appearance to the Israelite tradition. The first chapter of Genesis was not composed until after the Babylonian exile in the sixth century B.C., long after the historical chronicles. The fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. and the loss of the land reflect the feeling of a collapse, a chaos all over the earth and a cry to Yahweh as the One on whom all order depends, the One who first brought order from chaos. The opening chapter of Genesis composed around this time, expresses confidence that the same Lord who has protected Israel from its beginnings is the Creator. It retells the story of Creation presented in the much older and more primitive account of the origins of man and woman, as Chapter Two of Genesis. The creation from nothing, is of later Christian tradition. In the Bible the story of creation does not stand by itself as though it were a prescientific attempt to explain the origin or evolution of nature. Creation is the starting point of history. It sets the stage for the unfolding of the divine purpose, a historical drama.
The history of the gospel tradition is a history of the translation of a story from Aramaic into Greek, even though the earliest stages of this history are lost to us. The Greek language determined to a substantial degree the formulation of the message.
The biblical writers show little if any interest in a causal explanation of natural process. The Greeks however were fascinated by it. They speculated of how water or fire or atoms in motion could explain the world they saw(McMullin, p21). Greek natural science attained its height with Aristotle. He created whole fields such as physics, theoretical astronomy, logic and biology. Aristotle foreshadowed evolution, "we should venture on the study of every kind of animal without distaste, for each and all will reveal to us something natural…Nature's works exemplify…the conduciveness of everything to an end, and the resultant end of Nature's generations is a form of the beautiful." (McMullin, p22)
St Augustine (5th century) argued the Genesis account of creation in six days could not have been meant as literal history. How could there be days, in the literal sense, before the sun was created? Yet, the sun appears on what is called in the text the fourth day. Further, the term day is a day in one part of the earth, it is night in the another. The six days of the Genesis account involve the entire earth. St Augustine concluded that the term must be taken metaphorically and speculated what it may have meant. St Augustine stated that if there is a conflict between a literal reading of Scripture and a well-established truth about nature, this is sufficient reason to take the scriptural passage metaphorically. There cannot be a contradiction between nature and Scripture since God speaks to both. St Augustine indicated that no one should worry if Christians are ignorant of those he called physicists regarding the natures of things. It is enough for Christians to believe that the cause of all created things, whether in the heavens or on the earth, whether visible or invisible, is nothing other than the goodness of the Creator (McMullin, p 27).
In the mid 1200s, the natural science taught in universities, including theology students, was that of Aristotle (McMullin, p 27). Aristotelian cosmology and Christian theology were merged to form the medieval picture of the universe. Earth was the fixed central sphere surrounded by the spheres of the heavens. Man was unique and central in location and importance. This view would soon be challenged by science.
Galileo (1564-1642) combined mathematical reasoning and experimental observation. Galileo formulated a new picture of nature, that as nature in motion. Galileo called mass and velocity, primary qualities. What some Catholics may not know is that Galileo was a devout Catholic and found no conflict between his scientific and religious beliefs. He upheld the importance of scripture but claimed that it reveals not scientific facts but spiritual knowledge for man's salvation, truths that are above reason and could not be discovered by observation. Galileo put nature and scripture on the same level as avenues of God (Barbour, pp 23-30).
Newton (1642-1727)invented calculus but he was also an ingenious experimenter in mechanics and optics. Newton's law of motion and gravity, a novel insight, was the idea that the earth's gravitational pull might extend to the moon. Newton believed and found time for God and the human spirit (Barbour, pp 34-37).
The eighteenth century saw itself as the Age of Reason (Barbour, p57)
Charles Darwin and the Church
Darwin spent twenty-five years studying in detail the breeding of domestic animals, such as dogs where new breeds would be produced that never existed before from greyhound, to St. Bernard to Chihuahua. Here was evolution with human choice replacing natural survival. Darwin studied problems as diverse as hybridization of plants, comparative structure of embryos and the geographical distribution of animal and plant forms, both living and extinct. The range and magnitude of information he brought into correlation with his theory is staggering. After all this research, he published Origin of Species in 1859 (Barbour,p86.)
For Roman Catholicism evolution was not in principle as disturbing as it was for Protestant conservatism. In Catholicism, revealed truth is to be sought not in scripture alone, but in scripture and tradition as interpreted by the living church. Moreover, the doctrine that scripture is divinely inspired has not excluded considerable flexibility and diversity in biblical interpretations (Barbour, p 100).
By the close of the century, the fact of evolution was accepted by virtually all scientists, and by the vast majority of theologians.
In the Middle Ages it was believed that frogs generate spontaneously from mud (Barbour, p 269). Today we know better. In 1950, Pope Pius X11, in Humans Generis, a "doctrine of evolution" was directly addressed. There was no talk of the woman originating from man.
In 1951, an address of Pope Pius X11 cited with approval the views of several astronomers that the universe had a beginning in time. In general, it is maintained that the creation of both the universe and the first man and woman were historical events, but that the biblical portrayal of these events is figurative (Barbour p 374).
Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)
Ursula King describes Teilhard de Chardin as a traveler, explorer, scientist, priest, and mystic. She writes that for many he was too complex, too difficult a writer, too daring an innovator. He was in love with the world and he was in love with God, deeply faithful to the Catholic Church. Teilhard de Chardin was one of the Catholic Theologians who accepted and interpreted the faith with the understanding of evolution. Teilhard de Chardin divides the energies that propel the world forward in time into two radically different sorts, tangential (preserves what evolution has provided) and radial (draws a given element forwards). Chardin argued that to explain the evolutionary process, one must introduce a "radial" energy that is basically psychic in nature and whose operation can be discerned only by employing a mode of understanding, a special seeing of pattern. Teilhard claimed that the radial energies of the universe are the manifestation of a hyperpersonal Omega point toward which the universe is both ascending and converging. Teilhard identified this Omega Point with the Creator God of the Christian tradition (McMullin, pp36-37). He believed that everything, in some way, has existed from the very first. There is no sharp life unless there was already incipient life in all matter. Similarly there is no line between life and thought. Mind, like activity, of an elementary kind reaches all the way down the scale of life, though it becomes lost in darkness as we trace it back. Teilhard believed that evolution is incomplete. Creation is continuing and the universe is still in the process of being born (Barbour, p 399). Teilhard was convinced that our world is a dynamic world, an embryonic cosmos still in growth. In such a world, origins are less important than directions of development, and the past is less significant than the future. God is involved in continuous creation (Barbour, 408).
Teilhard was trying to find a balance between science, religion and humanity when he said, "Our Christology is still expressed in exactly the same terms as those which, three centuries ago, could satisfy men whose outlook on the cosmos is now physically impossible for us to accept. Unless we admit that religious life and human life are independent of one another
(which is a psychological impossibility) such a situation must a priori produce a feeling of dismay, a loss of balance…the answer must be in bringing Christology and evolution into line with one another (Chardin, p77). What Teilhard was trying to do was bring, humanity, God and the world together again. He was trying to balance the juggling of the balls.
Teilhard accepted science and believed that now was the time to look forward, "What now has to be done following the cosmic currents revealed by history, is to confront the future; and that means, now that we have recognized evolution, to drive it further ahead. All the spirit of the earth combines to produce an increase of unitary thinking: that is the avenue opening up ahead of us. Teilhard was trying to make sense of an evolutionary world. "Logically, we should have to admit that if the world is advancing towards the spiritual there must be a conscious peak to the universe." (Chardin, p 90) Teilhard believed it was necessary to have a faith in God ahead and a faith in God above, combining the immanent God of evolution with the idea of a transcendent God. Teilhard was one of the early pioneers of interfaith dialogue. He supported and took part in interfaith activities from 1946 onward. "Faith in Man" was read at the Union des Croyants formed in 1947. Today we know it as inter religious dialogue. Teilhard's address was based on the idea that people of different faiths and world views can, in spite of their differences, come together through their shared faith in the value of the human being. Believers of different faiths can cooperate in building together a common future.
Teilhard was mocked as great men and women before him have been. His views were described in Canadian and American newspapers as the "Jesuit who believes man descended from apes." But he was recognized among his intellectual peers. He was awarded the prestigious Mendel Medal in recognition of his work by the Catholic University of Villanova (King, Ursula, p 164).
Our Present Knowledge
There is no doubt that we are living in an amazing time with endless opportunities. Of course we are also living in a dangerous time. Regardless of our scientific discoveries that continue to expand along with our technical and medical knowledge, we are still allowing people to starve in major portions of the world while we exploit our world in others. Hopefully we can continue to evolve intellectually as well as spiritually without destroying each other or our planet with our tampering. There is an end for all of us including our universe as most of us know. As Catholics we should take our faith seriously, try to do something good for others and our world, even if it is in a small way. We need to understand the changes we are introduced to in science because we need to understand our faith in the context of a changing world. We need to maintain the balance of the three balls, of humanity, God and the world. We depend on our Catholic leaders to educate us, to enlighten us and to help us with our faith. We depend on our leaders to help us to help others. We depend on our leaders to guide us, nurture us and to help us understand God in our changing world. It is the responsibility of every priest to enlighten his congregation. It is every theologian's responsibility to do the same. But the onus is also on the congregation to explore and to understand our world in relation to our faith. Creation is not only about us as humans, it is about all the animals we share life with, it is about our planet that we should nurture and respect and take care of as we should with everything that is within our control. We will continue to grow, and we will continue to spiral. Teilhard tried to make sense in juggling the balls to reconnect our present selves to God. We will continue to do the same as we move forward and closer to God.
Vatican Council II admitted that the evolutionary ideas of Teilhard de Chardin had "a certain influence, at least indirect and diffuse on some orientations of the council". In the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes) it states, "And so mankind substitutes a dynamic and more evolutionary concept of nature for a static one." (GS 5)This is followed in the same document by, "historical studies tend to make us view things under the aspects of changeability and evolution" (GS 54)(Korsmeyer,p 18)
In June 1988, in a message to a group of scientists and theologians, Pope John Paul 11 urged scientists and theologians to come to understand each other for their mutual benefit. Pope John Paul said, "Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. In October 1996, Pope John Paul 11, in a formal address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, declared that "fresh knowledge" produced by scientific research now leads to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than just a hypothesis." Still he said Roman Catholics must believe that "the spiritual soul is immediately created by God."(Korsmeyer, p20)
Studies have confirmed that over 99.5% of our DNA is the same as a chimpanzee(Korsmeyer, p 81). What does this tell us? It tells us that we are arrogant to think that we are so much more important in this world than anything else in it.
This paper is about theology and theology is about faith seeking understanding. Teilhard was a Jesuit priest. Jesuit spirituality is helping people in finding God in all things. This is not a paper about science. This is a paper about theology. But we can not talk about theology without talking about science. We cannot ignore scientific findings. We cannot continue to insist that a frog is generated spontaneously from mud. If we do, then the balance of the balls is not possible and will collapse. The concepts of the Middle ages cannot continue. Our society and our intelligence are evolving. Not all have the opportunity for an education. Not all have the possibilities to learn. Therefore, it is imperative that our priests educate accordingly. For they have the opportunity to learn and the obligation to teach the congregation. Theologians too are obligated to teach. But one can refuse to learn or laugh at what one doesn't understand or want to understand. As Catholics we believe in God. As Catholics we need to understand the balance of the three balls, our world, God and humanity.
It is fitting that we conclude with our understanding of the world as it was and as it is.
The entire course of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution can be calculated backwards from the present state of the universe until a point of 1 divided by 10 followed by 42 zeros. Quantum theory does not allow us to get any closer to time zero.
15 billion years ago the universe began as a stupendous energy. 14.5 billion years ago the sun was born. 4.45 billion years ago planets were formed. Earth brings forth an atmosphere, oceans and continents. 395 million years ago we have insects. 245 million years ago 75%to 95% of all species of that time were eliminated. 235 million years ago, dinosaurs appeared; flowers spread. 15 million years ago there is a cosmic impact – a catastrophe. 8 million years ago we have our modern cats (early cats and dogs were 35 million years ago). 6 million years ago there were modern dogs. 3.3 million years ago, current ice ages begin. 2.6 million years ago - first humans. 3,500 years ago the world population has 5 – 10 million. 3,500 B.C – chronic warfare. 3,000 B.C. there is the civilization of the Nile in Egypt and there are advances in technology. 4 B.C.E. Jesus.
The Genesis 1 story is primarily meant as a reflection about the relationship between God, the world and humankind. It gives meaning and purpose to the process of cosmic and biological evolution (Bonting, p28). As Teilhard realized we will continue to evolve towards God. Times have changed since St Augustine reported that one should not worry if Christians are ignorant of the nature of things. If ignorance continues, then we will no longer be able to maintain a balance in the juggling of the balls.
Bibliography
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