I completed The Jesuit and the Skullthis morning around 9:15am. While listening to Science Friday a few months ago I heard the interview with the author, Amir Aczel. The book is about Pierre Teilhard de Chardin a French (obviously) Jesuit priest and scientist who tried to reconcile faith and science in the first part of the last century. The Jesuit superiors would not allow his books to be published in his lifetime, for he offered a faith based view of evolution.
I would recommend the book for a refresher course on the history of humanity and the still needed reconciliation between faith and science.
1 comment:
I read this book last month as I was preparing my sermon series on the environment. de Chardin's theology is still the basis for much of the eco-theology done today and referred to by many including McFague and Boff. I had just finished reading Moltmann's 'God in Creation.' I didn't actually finish it... I just couldn't take anymore. Occassionally his arguments went over my head. Mostly though, I didn't see any connection between his thought and the environment which I thought he was supposed to be addressing. I just read a defence of orthodox theology like creatio ex nihilo etc. In my opinion he was not really trying to do a theology of creation, but instead mount a defense against process theologians and their influence on eco-theologians. I couldn't help but thinking that he wouldn't approve of de Chardin.
Theology that isn't afraid to go outside the bounds of orthodoxy is much more interesting to me than apologists for the tradition.
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