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As the influence of French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin continues to expand in the church, the academy, and beyond, Encountering Teilhard offers a fascinating testament to his importance through reflections by many who have studied and been shaped by his unique integration of science and Christian faith. Contributors include Joan Chittister, Ilia Delio, John Haught, Matthew Fox, Kathleen Duffy, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, Libby Osgood, Leonardo Boff, José Ignacio Gonzalez-Faus, SJ, Antonio Spadaro, SJ, and many more. Their testimonies speak not only of the gratitude so many feel for Teilhard’s prophetic intuitions, but also of how much his thought can still contribute to the Church of the future.
As the editor notes, Teilhard lived during dark times—as a stretcher-bearer in World War I, and later enduring exile and restrictions on his work by the Vatican and his Jesuit order. “Nevertheless, Teilhard knew how to keep his hope unscathed.” In one of his prayers he wrote, “Do not be troubled by the difficulties of life, by its ups and downs or by its disappointments, or because the future seems at times a little bleak. / Want what God wants. Abandon yourself into his hands of providence, and trust blindly in that God who wants you for himself just as you are.”
Juan V. Fernández de la Gala is a medical doctor, anthropologist, and professor of the history of science at the University of Cádiz (Andalusia, Spain). As vice-president of the Spanish Association of Teilhard de Chardin, he has promoted the thought of Teilhard at many international conferences.
“Every so often, a thinker emerges with novel ideas that shake up established systems. Such persons are often disparaged, dismissed, or declared incompetent, but to those who seek the true light, they are creators and inventors of a new world. The scientist-priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, was such a figure.”—Ilia Delio, founder, Center for Christogenesis
