Teilhard De Chardin (1881-1955)

Today also marks the death of Pierre Teilhard De Chardin: geologist, paleontologist, philosopher, theologian, evolutionist, writer, and Jesuit priest. Born in France, he joined the Jesuits and was ordained in 1911. During World War I, he served as a stretcher bearer in the French army. As a scientist, he participated in the expedition that discovered Peking Man. His theories about the evolutionary relationship between God and humanity startled Church authorities, but he never gave up trying to reconcile Christian beliefs with evolution. His books The Phenomenon of Man and The Divine Milieu were some of his attempts to heal the breach that arose between faith and science in a post-Enlightenment world. (Teilhard was also the basis for Max Von Sydow’s character in the 1973 film The Exorcist.)