Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s posthumously-published synthesis, written in the 1930s but suppressed by the Society of Jesus during his lifetime and finally released in French in 1955 (the year of his death) and in English translation by Bernard Wall in 1959 with an introduction by Julian Huxley. Teilhard was a Jesuit palaeontologist who participated in the discovery of Peking Man; the book is his attempt to integrate Catholic theology with evolutionary biology in a single account of cosmic history — from the "stuff of the universe" through the emergence of life and thought to what he calls the noosphere, the planet-wide layer of mind.
The book culminates in the "Omega Point": Teilhard’s proposal that biological and cultural evolution are converging on a final unifying centre which he identifies with the Christ of Christian theology. Reception has been sharply divided. Sir Peter Medawar’s 1961 review remains the most famous scientific demolition; Stephen Jay Gould was scarcely kinder. Inside Catholic theology Teilhard’s rehabilitation has been gradual — favourable references from Pope Benedict XVI and explicit citation in Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’. Within process theology, eco-spirituality and contemporary evolutionary spirituality Teilhard is foundational.
Contents
The Stuff of the Universe
The Within of Things
The Earth in its Early Stages
The Advent of Life
The Expansion of Life
Demeter
The Birth of Thought
The Deployment of the Noosphere
The Modern Earth
The Collective Issue
Beyond the Collective: The Hyper-Personal
The Ultimate Earth
The Christian Phenomenon
The Essence of the Phenomenon of Man
Reception
An enormously contested text. Sir Peter Medawar’s 1961 review in Mind remains the most famous scientific demolition (calling it "a bag of tricks"); Stephen Jay Gould was scarcely kinder. Teilhard’s standing inside Catholic theology was rehabilitated only gradually — Pope Benedict XVI made favourable references; Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ draws explicitly on Teilhard. Within process theology, eco-spirituality and the contemporary "evolutionary spirituality" movement (Andrew Cohen, Steve McIntosh) Teilhard is foundational. The "noosphere" concept has independently entered information-theory and internet-philosophy vocabularies, often via Marshall McLuhan.
Frequently asked
What is The Phenomenon of Man about?
It is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s synthesis of Catholic theology and evolutionary biology — a single account of cosmic history running from the "stuff of the universe" through the emergence of life and thought to the noosphere (the planet-wide layer of mind) and finally to what he calls the Omega Point, a convergence-toward-Christ in which biological and cultural evolution are heading.
When was The Phenomenon of Man written, and why was it published posthumously?
Teilhard wrote the book in the late 1930s but the Society of Jesus, his religious order, forbade its publication during his lifetime on doctrinal grounds. It was published in French as Le phénomène humain in 1955, the year of his death, and translated into English by Bernard Wall in 1959 with an introduction by Julian Huxley.
How was the book received by scientists?
Reception has been sharply divided. Sir Peter Medawar’s 1961 review in Mind is the most famous scientific demolition, calling the book "a bag of tricks". Stephen Jay Gould took a similar view. Within process theology, eco-spirituality and the contemporary evolutionary-spirituality movement, however, the book is foundational, and Popes Benedict XVI and Francis have cited Teilhard favourably.