Teilhard’s Quotes

Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ Priest and Paleontologist 1881 – 1955

“Seeing. One could say that the whole of life lies in seeing — if not ultimately, at least essentially. To be more is to be more united — and this sums up and is the very conclusion of the work to follow. But unity grows, and we will affirm this again, only if it is supported by an increase of consciousness, of vision. That is probably why the history of the living world can be reduced to the elaboration of ever more perfect eyes at the heart of a cosmos where it is always possible to discern more. Are not the perfection of an animal and the supremacy of the thinking being measured by the penetration and power of synthesis of their glance? To try to see more and to see better is not, therefore, just a fantasy, curiosity, or a luxury. See or perish. This is the situation imposed on every element of the universe by the mysterious gift of existence. And thus, to a higher degree, this is the human condition.”

The Human Phenomenon, 3

“The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire.”

Toward the Future, 86-87

“The phrase ‘Sense of the Earth’ should be understood to mean the passionate concern for our common destiny which draws the thinking part of life ever further onward. In principle there is no feeling which has a firmer foundation in nature, or greater power. But in fact, there is also no feeling which awakens so belatedly, since it can become explicit only when our consciousness has expanded beyond the broadening, but still far too restricted, circles of family, country and race, and has finally discovered that the only truly natural and real human Unity is the Spirit of Earth.”

Building the Earth, 43

“Human Energy presents itself to our view as the term of a vast process in which the whole mass of the universe is involved. In us, the evolution of the world towards the spirit becomes conscious. From that moment, our perfection, our interest, our salvation as elements of creation can only be to press on with this evolution with all our strength. We cannot yet understand exactly where it will lead us, but it would be absurd for us to doubt that it will lead us towards some end of supreme value. From this there finally emerges in our twentieth century human consciousness, for the first time since the awakening of life on earth, the fundamental problem of Action. No longer, as in the past, for our small selves, for our small family, our small country; but for the salvation and the success of the universe, how must humanity organize around us for the best, the maintenance, distribution and progress of human energy?”

Building the Earth, 67-68

“Science alone cannot discover Christ. But Christ satisfies the yearnings that are born in our hearts in the school of science… Science will, in all probability, be increasingly impregnated by mysticism.”

Science and Christ, 36, 83

“The great cosmic attributes of Christ, those which accord to him a universal and final primacy over Creation, these attributes take on their full dimension only in the setting of an evolution that is both spiritual and convergent.”

Science and Evolution, 189

“Christ has a cosmic body that extends throughout the universe.”

Writings in Time of War, 58

“Creation, incarnation, and redemption are to be seen as no more than three complementary aspects of one and the same process.”

Christianity and Evolution, 198

“The mystical Christ, the Universal Christ of St Paul has neither meaning nor value in our eyes except as an expression of the Christ who was born of Mary and who died on the Cross.”

The Divine Milieu, 105

“It seems we are now reliving after 1,500 years the great conflicts with Arianism – with the big difference that we are now concerned with defining the relations, not between Christ and the Trinity, – but between Christ and a universe that has suddenly become fantastically large, formidably organic and more than probably poly-human (n thinking planets – millions perhaps). And if I may express myself brutally (but expressively) I see no valid or constructive way out of the situation except by making through the theologians of a new Nicea a sub-distinction in the human nature of Christ between a terrestrial nature and a cosmic nature.”

Letter to Andre Ravier SJ, 14 January 1955, Lettres intimes, 452

“By the incarnation, God descended into nature to’ super-animate’ it and lead it back to God’s Self.”

Human Energy, 178

“The Cross is not a shadow of death, but a sign of progress.”

Science and Christ, 108

“It has sometimes seemed to me there are three weak stones sitting dangerously in the foundations of the modern Church: first, a government that excludes democracy; second, a priesthood that excludes and minimizes women; third, a revelation that excludes, for the future, prophecy.”

Letter to Christophe de Gaudefroy, 7 October 1929, Lettres in⁄dites, 80

“The future . . . is finer than all the past. That, as you know,” is what I firmly believe.”

Making of a Mind, 306

“I, Lord, for my very lowly part, would wish to be the apostle and (if I dare be so bold) the evangelist of your Christ in the universe.”

Writings in Time of War, 219

“Love is the most universal, the most tremendous and the most mystical of cosmic forces. Love is the primal and universal psychic energy. Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution.”

Human Energy, 32, 33, 34

“Glorious Christ, you whose divine influence is active at the very heart of matter, and at the dazzling center where the innumerable fibers of the multiple meet: you whose power is as implacable as the world and as warm as life, you whose forehead is of the whiteness of snow, whose eyes are of fire, and whose feet are brighter than molten gold; you whose hands imprison the stars; you are the first and the last, the living and the dead and the risen again; it is to you to whom our being cries out a desire as vast as the universe: In truth you are our Lord and our God! Amen.”

The Heart of Matter, 131-32

“In the beginning was Power, intelligent, loving, energizing. In the beginning was the Word, supremely capable of mastering and molding whatever might come into being in the world of matter. In the beginning there were not coldness and darkness: there was Fire.”

The Heart of Matter, 121-22

QUOTES ABOUT TEILHARD

"There are really only two ways, it seems to me, in which we can think about our existence here on Earth. We either agree with Macbeth that life is nothing more than a 'tale told by an idiot,' a purposeless emergence of life-forms including the clever, greedy, selfish, and unfortunate species that we call homo sapiens - the 'evolutionary goof.' Or we believe that, as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin put it, 'There is something afoot in the universe, something that looks like gestation and birth.' In other words, a plan, a purpose to it all."

(JANE GOODALL, REASON FOR HOPE: A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY. NEW YORK: WARNER BOOKS, 1999: XI-XII.)

The task before us now
is to build the Earth.
—Teilhard