Head in the Stars, Hands in the Earth: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

I have spent my life looking for a space.   I have left a country, a job and a few relationships in search of a place where I felt comfortable or safe.  I’ve tried my best to create my own path but there were also a number of individuals who were inspirational.   This is my tribute to one.

Before I introduce him, let’s consider the way we saw the planet 100 years ago.

In 1924, an American astronomer by the name of Edward Hubble used a 100-inch Hooker Telescope to identify variable stars in the Andromeda Nebula.   Even today, its distance and enormity (twice the size of the Milky Way) is hard to conceive.

The above photo can be viewed with both fascination and a slight unease. 

If the Earth is just a sad speck of sand in a galaxy, one of countless others, man’s place would seem even more insignificant in the cosmos.   Science seems to question and challenge a monotheistic concept of God.    

This was NOT the view of the French paleontologist and priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955).    Unlike theologians or philosophers “lost in abstraction”, the Jesuit priest from Auvergne viewed the cosmos as a living, dynamic and evolving system.   Making sense of it was a challenge which inspired him.

Chardin literally got his fingernails dirty looking for a pattern or an underlying truth.

For the Frenchman, evolution was not only observable but something which calls us, individually and collectively, into the process.  As humans, we have a spiritual duty to grow.

It was Chardin’s duty to write about evolution even if his major works would be censored by the Catholic Church until his death in 1955. His evolutionary beliefs were considered revolutionary.

1924

Stepping back 100 years – a very brief period of time if we consider what we know of our galaxy -  will take us to a pivotal year in the life of Teilhard de Chardin.  

The 42-year-old priest had only been in China for a year.  He was doing fossil excavation and research in the Ordos Desert of Mongolia when he began to formulate his theories to bridge the gap between science and religion.   

The vast, barren desert landscapes gave Chardin the isolation necessary for reflection and the writing of his masterpiece, The Divine Milieu.

Let’s start with a simple quote from the spiritual classic.

"God does not offer Himself to our finite beings as a thing all complete and embraced.  For us, He is eternal discovery and eternal growth.”

The Divine Milieu puts forth the idea that God is not separate from the world but intimately present in it, working through every moment, object, and action. It is the divine "centre" where all creation finds meaning and fulfilment.    (“Centre being one translation in French for the word milieu.)

Simply said, God is neither separate from the world nor static.

Humankind is collectively moving towards unity.

"Above all, trust in the slow work of God", he reassures us.

The Omega Point and the Noosphere

While Chardin would develop the above concepts in later works such as, The Phenomenon of Man, he nonetheless lays the groundwork for them here.

With the keen observation of a scientist, he observed the inherent order of the Cosmos.

Chardin believed that this law holds the universe together and advances to the culmination of all creation. It moves forward to a single point of convergence.  This is what he called the Omega Point. 

The Divine Milieu also includes references to the "noosphere" --  (from the Greek nous meaning "mind") which Teilhard would later describe as the "thinking layer" of the Earth.    

This “invisible film” emerges as human minds collectively contribute to the evolution of a cosmic Christ consciousness.

In 2025,  these concepts resonate with our current existential and planetary challenges:

• an overall loss of purpose or meaning

• the depletion of the Earth's natural resources

• artificial intelligence, with all its promise and dangers, and

• the dire need for interfaith dialogue

Teilhard de Chardin was wise enough to recognise and avoid the cultural trap common to many European intellectuals: the Cartesian "I think therefore I am."

This dualistic approach opposes mind (spirit) from matter (body). The Frenchman considered the tension between these two as mysterious and inseperable. For him, this little garden planet was sacred. "The world is in truth a holy place."

Yet he insisted that he was NOT a pantheist. Chardin adhered to a theistic framework that maintained God's transcendence and separateness from creation. He wanted to remain in line with traditional Christian doctrine.

Alas, the Vatican was not interested in such nuances and despite several rewritings of the Divine Milieu, it was never approved for publication in his lifetime.

Who was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin?

For his Chinese colleagues, he was the “smiling scientist”.   The archeologists with whom he worked side by side nicknamed him  Shén 神 shǔ 曙 de 德  Father, Daybreak, Virtue (a loose phonetic transcription of Chardin).

For scientists,  he is one of the discoverers of the “Peking Man”, an important fossil find (1927) in human evolutionary studies.   

For the Vatican, seventy years after his death, he was a Catholic priest whose lifework is currently viewed with increasing curiosity and respect.

Chardin's cosmic approach to spirituality is catching on. Research centres, associations and documentaries on his life and work are flourishing worldwide.

Bringing it back to my space.

Doing research on this man's remarkable life left me with a profound admiration for his unwavering determination to speak his truth.

Like me, he was a cultural misfit who spent most of his adult life outside his homeland.

I identify with Teilhard de Chardin because we both stepped out of a comfortable framework to search for meaning when the rules did not make sense. Better to live with the isolation than the hypocrisy of towing the line.

As I write these lines, I imagine myself in a rose garden. Chardin comes by and sees me admiring one in particular. He smiles softly and says,

"It's so beautiful and fragrant but....be careful, there are thorns."

I am well aware of the thorns.

The rose, of course, is my faith.

Teilhard de Chardin has helped me approach it, hold it close and use it to navigate the second half of my life.