Thierry Meynard, SJ, ed. Teilhard and the Future of Humanity (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), xi + 185 Pps., $40.00; Frank Parkinson, Science & Religion at the Crossroads (Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2009), vii + 162, $17.90; and Celia Deanne-Drummond, Christ and Evolution (London: SCM, 2009), xx + 300 Pps., $23.00.
Trained as both a paleontologist and philosopher, Teilhard was a synthesizer of science and religion, developing an idea of evolution as an unfolding of material and mental worlds into an integrated, holistic universe. The study of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is alive and well, and the implications of his writings on contemporary theology are far reaching, even fifty years post his death, as these three texts under review make explicit, reviews of which now follow.
Thierry Meynard, S.J., editor of Teilhard and the Future of Humanity, teaches philosophy at Fordham University and has written extensively on Chinese philosophy, comparative philosophy, and the cross-cultural history of China and the West. In the volume under review, Meynard brings together original essays by leading experts who reflect on Teilhard’s legacy for today’s globalized world. The essays explore such topics as the idea of God and the person; quantum reality and Teilhard’s vision; spiritual resources for the future; politics and economics; and a charter for co-evolution. More specifically, the first part, composed of three essays, deal with Teilhard’s vision regarding the human spirit, from the inside layers of individual awareness to that of others, and subsequently to the world. Ursula King links Teilhard’s vision with the future as it emerges from the past, Thomas King examines how Teilhard was shaped by the idea of the pursuit for the Animator of the human spirit, and Henri Madelin describes how Teilhard pictured the ‘self’ as growing and acquiring new meaning in contact with a globalized world, experienced as a ‘thinking envelope’. The second set, composed of two essays, address humanity in its relation to the earth. Mary-Evelyn Tucker describes six dimensions of Teilhard’s cosmology that are pertinent to today’s ecological concerns, and Steven Rockefeller offers an overview of the content within the Earth Charter (2000), showing how its concerns regarding respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace are consonant with Teilhard’s own ideas.
The third part of Meynard’s volume deals with globalization, and is composed of two essays: one by Michel Camdessus that advocates a humanized globalization informed by Teilhard’s economic and political writings, and a second essay written by Jean Boissonat that likewise builds from Teilhard’s writings and contends that Christianity has a powerful contribution to make to globalization, rendering it more humane and meaningful. The last part of title is also composed of two essays, and covers Teilhard’s understanding of science, which allows segue into the other books reviewed herein. More pointedly, Lothar Scäfer discusses recent contributions from science that lend credence to the idea that a form of consciousness exists in all matter, down to the level of even elementary particles, and Meynard’s own paper attempts to situate Teilhard within the debate on science in contemporary China.
The second volume under review, Science & Religion at the Crossroads, is written by Frank Parkinson, who originally studied engineering, but switched careers and later taught linguistics and philosophy at Lancaster University. Parkinson is deeply committed to a theology based on the new creation story of science that will enable the religious divisions arising from ancient myths to be transcended, thus paving the way for the future of humanity as being a truly global family. In a series of related essays, Parkinson argues that both science and religion are at a ‘crossroads’ of sorts because both of their current ‘myths’, understood as their over-arching stories, are being called into question by new discoveries and new ways of thinking.
This situation, Parkinson claims, calls for a reassessment not only of the individual disciplines but also of their relation to each other. His argument within the title is composed of four inter-related sections: first, he provides an overview of the current landscape in the science-religion dialogue, and notes how they have reach4ed the current impasse; in the second part, he notes several recent scientific discoveries – such as that of the galactic redshift – that makes Einsteinian orthodoxy counter-productive; thirdly, he sketches a new theological framework based on recent these discoveries from science; and in the fourth section, Parkinson highlights the need for humanity to recognize that it is a single species, and that the new(er) creation story given by science must be the foundation for an authentic and relevant future religion
Our third volume under review, Christ and Evolution, was written by Celia Deane-Drummond, who originally earned a doctorate in Plant Physiology, later to receive also a doctorate in theology, and then was awarded the Chair in Theology and the Biological Sciences at the University of Chester in England. This title speaks broadly of Christologies that can range from the most traditional, expressing the understanding Christ as both human and divine person, to the most liberal, where Christ is understood as divine inasmuch as he is a man who was perfectly obedient to the will of God. Within the title, she contends that one’s image of Christ inevitably bears on the particular culture in which we are situation, and that it is therefore somewhat surprising that the science-religion dialogue has focused most on a doctrine of God, while rarely addressing Christ.
In an attempt to correct this, Deane-Drummond’s book sets out to develop a Christology that is far more conscious of the evolutionary history of humanity and current evolutionary theories about the natural world in general. It argues that one means of developing a Christology that can be informed by such theories is through the concepts of wisdom and wonder. In the course of her argument, she is particularly critical of Teilhard’s view of evolution, arguing that it is outdated in many respects. In fact, she argues that while Teilhard was correct in putting evolution on the proverbial ‘theological agenda’, his approach is indebted to a cosmic creation story that serves to generate an epic narrative approach to history. She asserts an alternative manner of relating Christology to evolution that takes it cue from theodrama as the primary source of inspiration, of which the entire book could be seen as an explication of what this might entail. In the process, she draws from evolutionary psychology, the drama of the incarnation, von Balthasar, and animal behaviorists. She deals with the evolutionary significance of Christ’s resurrection, and develops an evolutionary understanding of eschatology. Throughout, building from her previous title, Creation through Wisdom (T & T Clark, 2000), she argues for the use of theodrama as an exercise in constructive theology and as a means of relating Christology to evolution.
In sum, these three titles show that Teilhard’s impact is extensive, and whether one agrees with him or not, one must go through him in order to deal with the future of humanity, especially as it relates to theology and science. I could easily see these three texts being used for upper-level graduate studies that intersect with philosophy of religion and theology and science.
Bradford McCall, Regent University, Virginia beach, VA