Chauchard, Paul

A careful analysis of Teilhard de Chardin's views, as a scientist and as a Christian, on two important problems in the world today: the problem of love and the problem of suffering. Does science objectively encounter love? In a Teilhardian critique of the true meaning of matter, the author answers in the affirmative and demonstrates how science arrives at love in the world -- a love that logically leads to the Christian faith. Is the Christianity of Teilhard a Christianity without the cross? The author shows the entire work of Teilhard de Chardin illuminated by the shadow of the cross. Teilhard's every thought as a scientist living within the mystery of the cross -- is marked by that mystery, which he urges us to look for within the Church in order better to understand it. For Teilhard, the problem of evil is in reality an expression of love and a principle of union between God and mankind.

The aim of this book is to vindicate the philosophical validity and the Catholic authenticity of Teilhard's scientific phenomenology. The resulting picture is that of a realist view of the universe which rejects the two opposing errors of Pelagian optimism and Manichean pessimism, and which lays to rest definitively the criticism that Teilhard neglected the elements of sin and human freedom. The author traces Teilhard's links with Thomistic philosophy, investigates his approach to the problem of evil and concludes with a sketch of a Teilhardian synthesis of science and religion.