Christianity and Evolution

Rating:
Summary: One of the best arguments for the necessity of evil...
Review: After spending a year studying this book, I have concluded that Teilhard could be right on. In the least he offers a delightful synthesis of turn-of-the-century anthropology/science and his religious tradtion. So although I get called a heretic in class, I'd suggest this book to folks who want are frustrated with the lack of scientific reflection in theology.

Rating:
Summary: A little out of date but still worthwhile
Review: Definitely not new-age drivel. I found the essays authoratative, imaginative, and beautifully written. However this book was of limited usefulness for me and ( for different reasons )it may likewise fail to engage those who are not familiar with certain dogmas and apologetic arguments. Teilhard de Chardin wrote most of this in the 1920s before the second Vatican council accepted evolutionary theory. Since then, his enemy has changed from modernism to post-modernism. His essays will seem unnecessarily radical, mystical and, frankly, too preoccupied with Catholicism for skeptics and evangelicals who may be drawn to the book looking for perspectives on the current evolution/creation crisis.

Students of the history of religious thought may give this book a higher rating than mine, and justifiably so. I blush to admit that I don't know the significance of the author in that history.

Rating:
Summary: A little out of date but still worthwhile
Review: Teilhard de Chardin probably has done more to make Christianity,and God in general, believable to the modern person than perhaps anyone else. His most endearing quality is his ability to, and this is a necessity if believe in a personal God is to survive in light of the modern world, combine science and God in a unified metaphysical system. No longer are religion and science two mutually exclusive realms of truth: for the theist to have a coherent system, he MUST seek a unity of the two spheres. This, though, involves risks. It involves facing up to conflicts between the two and compels an honest seeker of the truth to entertain abandoning his previously beliefs. For such a person (and I consider myself to be one), Teilhard de Chardin's ideas are invaluable.

I actually had a crisis of faith while reading "Christianity and Evolution." The cause of this unsettling event is not a demonic, evil, blasphemous spirit contained in Teilhard's exhortations but rather the fact that he is quite honest and unforgiving about the serious difficulties raised by traditinal theism. In a way, he is me what Hume was to Immanuel Kant being that he "awoke me from my dogmatic slumbers."

The content of "Christianity and Evolution" is too vast to cover in a review, so instead I will highlight 2 of the more radical or interesting ideas that proceed from it.

The Universal Christ- Christ can only truly be Christ if he redeems all of existence. If he only came to save a particular species of animals on a planet orbiting a normal star, in the outskirts of a normal galaxy, in an insignificant cluster of galaxies, in one of the countless superclusters of galaxies then "he is abjectly extinguished, eclipsed by the size of the universe." Traditional Christian theology states that the reason why Christ redeems the world is that it suffers from sin, Original Sin being foremost (see St. Paul's argument about the Two Adams). However, a literal Fall makes absolutely no sense in light of modern science (specifically the evolutionary history of the earth). But regardless of the nature of the Fall, the spirit of the Bible is clear: all of the universe has been corrupted and the whole of existence must be redeemed. From this follows the demand that Original Sin be universalized: not as a transgression made by a man in a garden in the Persian Gulf region 6000 years ago, but as part of the intrinsic structure of the universe.

The Problem of Evil- Critics of Teilhard, for example Jurgen Moltmann, argue that Teilhard ignores the "losers of evolution," an accusation that amounts to charging Teilhard with neglecting the problem of evil. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, from Teilhardian metaphysics the solution to the problem of evil, the only solution I have ever encountered, surfaces. Classical theism is absolutely destroyed when faced with the problem of evil (see William Rowe's argument for atheism). Teilhard provides a solution, though. It would take many pages (26 w/ small print to be exact, in my paper on the topic) to fully argue the Teilhardian position, but his main points can be summed up. 1)Certain impossibilities about creation follow from an honest understanding of the nature of God: agape, completely self-giving, uncoercive... 2)The appearance of evil is not something that God could have prevented nor just "decided to get rid of" but follows from the nature of the creative act itself 3) This is a manifestation of the nature of God 4) Furthermore, although I would have to go into specifics, this insight as well as the universality of Christ (if God is agape, agape is uncoercive, Christ treats the human being as uncoercive, and Christ is the universal Redeemer, then the same freedom manifested as contingency in evolution must be given to the universe as a whole) absolves God from being "negligent" in eliminating evil since God cannot be negligent of eliminating something that he does not have the power to eliminate (because of his nature, not because of a lack of omnipotence). 5) The theodicy theory here is part of his metaphysics which, when thoroughly argued, not only makes evil compatible with God, but makes evil (especially as it is in type and magnitude now, both natural and moral) NECESSARY in a world like this one created by God. Teilhard's apologetic defense of God turns into a lethal argument in favor of his existence by the very thing that the atheist uses as grounds to discredit theism!

Needless to say, you could read Teilhard de Chardin for a decade and still not grasp his genius in its fullness. He covers other areas as well including the topic of Christianity v. Pantheism (interesting solution) and the Trinity (actually puts forth a strong RATIONAL argument for the triune nature of God). This is a must read!

Rating:
Summary: It's not a sin to make Christianity possible to believe
Review: Teilhard de Chardin probably has done more to make Christianity,and God in general, believable to the modern person than perhaps anyone else. His most endearing quality is his ability to, and this is a necessity if believe in a personal God is to survive in light of the modern world, combine science and God in a unified metaphysical system. No longer are religion and science two mutually exclusive realms of truth: for the theist to have a coherent system, he MUST seek a unity of the two spheres. This, though, involves risks. It involves facing up to conflicts between the two and compels an honest seeker of the truth to entertain abandoning his previously beliefs. For such a person (and I consider myself to be one), Teilhard de Chardin's ideas are invaluable.

I actually had a crisis of faith while reading "Christianity and Evolution." The cause of this unsettling event is not a demonic, evil, blasphemous spirit contained in Teilhard's exhortations but rather the fact that he is quite honest and unforgiving about the serious difficulties raised by traditinal theism. In a way, he is me what Hume was to Immanuel Kant being that he "awoke me from my dogmatic slumbers."

The content of "Christianity and Evolution" is too vast to cover in a review, so instead I will highlight 2 of the more radical or interesting ideas that proceed from it.

The Universal Christ- Christ can only truly be Christ if he redeems all of existence. If he only came to save a particular species of animals on a planet orbiting a normal star, in the outskirts of a normal galaxy, in an insignificant cluster of galaxies, in one of the countless superclusters of galaxies then "he is abjectly extinguished, eclipsed by the size of the universe." Traditional Christian theology states that the reason why Christ redeems the world is that it suffers from sin, Original Sin being foremost (see St. Paul's argument about the Two Adams). However, a literal Fall makes absolutely no sense in light of modern science (specifically the evolutionary history of the earth). But regardless of the nature of the Fall, the spirit of the Bible is clear: all of the universe has been corrupted and the whole of existence must be redeemed. From this follows the demand that Original Sin be universalized: not as a transgression made by a man in a garden in the Persian Gulf region 6000 years ago, but as part of the intrinsic structure of the universe.

The Problem of Evil- Critics of Teilhard, for example Jurgen Moltmann, argue that Teilhard ignores the "losers of evolution," an accusation that amounts to charging Teilhard with neglecting the problem of evil. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, from Teilhardian metaphysics the solution to the problem of evil, the only solution I have ever encountered, surfaces. Classical theism is absolutely destroyed when faced with the problem of evil (see William Rowe's argument for atheism). Teilhard provides a solution, though. It would take many pages (26 w/ small print to be exact, in my paper on the topic) to fully argue the Teilhardian position, but his main points can be summed up. 1)Certain impossibilities about creation follow from an honest understanding of the nature of God: agape, completely self-giving, uncoercive... 2)The appearance of evil is not something that God could have prevented nor just "decided to get rid of" but follows from the nature of the creative act itself 3) This is a manifestation of the nature of God 4) Furthermore, although I would have to go into specifics, this insight as well as the universality of Christ (if God is agape, agape is uncoercive, Christ treats the human being as uncoercive, and Christ is the universal Redeemer, then the same freedom manifested as contingency in evolution must be given to the universe as a whole) absolves God from being "negligent" in eliminating evil since God cannot be negligent of eliminating something that he does not have the power to eliminate (because of his nature, not because of a lack of omnipotence). 5) The theodicy theory here is part of his metaphysics which, when thoroughly argued, not only makes evil compatible with God, but makes evil (especially as it is in type and magnitude now, both natural and moral) NECESSARY in a world like this one created by God. Teilhard's apologetic defense of God turns into a lethal argument in favor of his existence by the very thing that the atheist uses as grounds to discredit theism!

Needless to say, you could read Teilhard de Chardin for a decade and still not grasp his genius in its fullness. He covers other areas as well including the topic of Christianity v. Pantheism (interesting solution) and the Trinity (actually puts forth a strong RATIONAL argument for the triune nature of God). This is a must read!

Rating:
Summary: Utter Nonsense
Review: Teilhard's book looks at the theory of evolution and tries to integrate it into Christian theology. He tries to show that evolution actually makes Christianity more logical and relevant than ever. Instead, he comes up with over two hundred pages of nonsense. Chardin rejects many Christian doctrines while claiming to fulfill the faith. Miracles are said to be impossible, as is original sin. Christ, says Chardin, should be seen not as our redeemer but our evolver. At one point he says that Jesus is not merely the answer to our sins but in fact the one who holds the weight of the world in evolution as well! He spends much of the book attacking the concept of the fall of man, which he says could not have involved an Adam and and Eve. Sin, he writes, slipped into humanity only gradually. But he never quite explains how this could happen (perhaps osmosis?). In the midst of all this, he claims that all true Christians must be Catholic. Yet his ideas most certainly contradict Catholic doctrine as surely as they do Protestant. Chardin's book is really no more than a new age manual at best. It is utter nonsense. Even most new age writing is more interesting and more logically presented. For those of you taken in by it, shame on you!

Rating:
Summary: Utter Nonsense
Review: Teilhard's book looks at the theory of evolution and tries to integrate it into Christian theology. He tries to show that evolution actually makes Christianity more logical and relevant than ever. Instead, he comes up with over two hundred pages of nonsense. Chardin rejects many Christian doctrines while claiming to fulfill the faith. Miracles are said to be impossible, as is original sin. Christ, says Chardin, should be seen not as our redeemer but our evolver. At one point he says that Jesus is not merely the answer to our sins but in fact the one who holds the weight of the world in evolution as well! He spends much of the book attacking the concept of the fall of man, which he says could not have involved an Adam and and Eve. Sin, he writes, slipped into humanity only gradually. But he never quite explains how this could happen (perhaps osmosis?). In the midst of all this, he claims that all true Christians must be Catholic. Yet his ideas most certainly contradict Catholic doctrine as surely as they do Protestant. Chardin's book is really no more than a new age manual at best. It is utter nonsense. Even most new age writing is more interesting and more logically presented. For those of you taken in by it, shame on you!