Teilhard de Chardin S.J.

The quotation above is "disputed."
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ: "Research is adoration"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/scientific-research-as-adoration-pierre.html

Dear J,

Thanks for your emails.

I do not argue against divine providence.

Often, however, providence impresses me as a collaborative process. 

Notably, Jesus could not work certain miracles unless the beneficiary believed in his power to heal. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%206:%201-5&version=NIRV

St. Symeon the New Theologian – Christ’s Body

http://interruptingthesilence.com/2009/07/16/symeon-the-new-theologian-christs-body/

We awaken in Christ’s body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ, He enters
my foot, and is infinitely me.

I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God is indivisibly
whole, seamless in His Godhood).

I move my foot, and at once
He appears like a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? — Then
open your heart to Him

and let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ’s body

where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,

and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed

and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
he awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.

– Symeon the New Theologian, (949-1022) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symeon_the_New_Theologian
http://www.sgtt.org/Writings/Patristics/StSymeonHymns.html

The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, edited by Stephen Mitchell

***

Scientific research is itself a form of prayer - whether or not individual researchers are aware of their devotion.

I am quite fond of the following observation by Jesuit paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin: "There is less difference than people think between research and adoration." 

Elsewhere Teilhard says: "Research is the highest form of adoration." 

Consider the lives of monks who alternate manual labor, song/praise/prayer and study. 

Essentially, monks are scholars.

I see "research" as focused contemplation "over time" - a meditative wooing of The Magnum Mysterium - a kind of sustained "cajoling" whose end is to better know the "object" of one's ardor.

Research is a fervent attempt to embrace Truth, to make love with Truth in hopes of producing real "offspring."  

I recommend my earlier de Chardin post: "Research as Adoration" - http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/scientific-research-as-adoration-pierre.html

As much as I admire de Chardin, I see no need for slavish duplication of his "thought." 

But I do think his overall approach provides a needed "cosmic template" if Christianity -- particularly Catholic Christianity -- hopes to emerge from "the medieval womb" in whose birth canal we are anachronistically stuck. 

The "old wine skins" can not hold the ongoing Revelation of Truth as we migrate from "the purely mythological" to "the scientifically concretized." (In no way do I undervalue "the purely mythological.")

It is time for "the great divorce" to heal... for "the transcendent" and "the immanent" to merge. 

The Incarnation is among us. 

"The Kindgom is at hand!" (Having said that, I don't think "kingship" remains a serviceable image.)

 

"There is neither spirit nor matter in the world; the stuff of the universe is spirit-matter."

Teilhard de Chardin

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin

"John Ford, John Wayne, Aquinas And Theosis (Christian Divinization)"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/12/more-on-theosis.html

To everyone's surprise, Pope Benedict spoke fondly of Teilhard: 

National Catholic Reporter: "Benedict XIV Cites Teilhardian Vision: Cosmos As A Living Host" by John L. Allen - http://ncronline.org/news/pope-cites-teilhardian-vision-cosmos-living-host

Wired Magazine: "A Globe Clothing Itself With A Brain." - http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.06/teilhard.html

A "dense" academic treatise entitled,"The Christified Universe: Experience and Existence in the Scientific Mind of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin" -  http://www.academia.edu/1436069/The_Christified_Universe_Experience_and_Existence_in_the_Scientific_Mind_of_Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin

Ignatian Spirituality - "Papal Praise For De Chardin," by Jim Manney.  http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/3023/papal-praise-for-teilhard/

1.   

On the other side of the fence -- and to keep Catholic conservatism "on radar" -- check out The "Spirit of the Council" nightmare that never ends: Teilhard de Chardin is what passes for "New Evangelization" in top Roman university. http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-spirit-of-council-nightmare-that.html  (Be sure to sample some reader comments.)

Pax tecum

Alan

On Thu, Jul 11, 2013 at 7:52 AM, JM wrote:

Dear Big Al:   Again, I am very sorry for all the pain you are in at this time.  

When you sing the glory of modern medicine and say God does not always provide what we want or need in prayer, I think there is some middle ground for the healing nature of plant medicine.

Take care, dear one … j

On Jul 10, 2013, at 5:00 PM, Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com> wrote:

Announcing The Marriage Of Heaven And Earth

(Notice that "earth" is a bit higher than "heaven," and that heaven's representative bends his knee.)

Fra Angelico, c. 1440

Dear Fred,

Thanks for your keen observation and beautiful calligraphy.

Does Medina (of "Mecca and Medina") simply mean "city?"

Paul Bowles - the American author of The Sheltering Sky who lived in Morocco the last 52 years of his life - wrote a memoir in which he described Islamics' disdainful relationship with "the things of this world." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Bowles

Specifically, he referred to a fellow - maybe his own driver - who was lark-happy to have a car that transported him effortlessly. 

But this same fellow refused to perform any maintenance on the vehicle, believing that "everything" depended on "Allah's will." 

One day, the car broke down and the driver had a hissy fit, kicking the chassis, cussing "the things of this world," proclaiming, "Only Allah is Great! Only Allah endures! Only Allah provides!"

Bowles concluded that Islamics pay no attention to the "practicalities" of this world because to do so would (albeit unconsciously) diminish The Grandeur of God and degrade the need for "submission" (which is, I believe, the meaning of "Islam.")

Furthermore, by insuring the "wreck" of this world, the belief that "only God is good" is validated.

Again we witness the cheek-by-jowl relationship between Christian fundamentalists - especially "Armageddon Cheerleaders" - and their Islamo-Jihadist counterparts.

By refusing to become "conscious co-creators," fundamentalists (regardless their stripe) believe themselves in humble subjection to the transcendent Will of God.

As you may know, I am currently afflicted with excruciating abdominal pain that seems to arise from a gall stone. (Later today I should know for sure.) 

Pain is a great leveler. 

Here is what I see flat on my litter...

Without belittling the healing work (and prototypal demonstration) of Yeshua of Nazareth, it is a bald fact that modern medicine -- even in the most remote, tumble-down Congo clinic -- works more miracles in a week than Yeshua did in his lifetime.

After countless millennia floundering in The Interminable Sea of Superstition, I remain confident that humankind's astonishing achievements redound "ad majorem gloriam Dei." http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2014:%2010-12&version=NIV

But The Glory depends --- existentially --- on collaboration between The Transcendent and The Immanent, "The Seen" and "The Unseen."

Kingdom come.

In the end, it is the marriage of heaven and earth that matters, not the oppositional absolutism of puerile, sterile separation.

Pax tecum

Alan

PS The Spanish word Ojala' is routinely rendered as "I hope so," but actually derives from the Moorish occupation of Spain and means "Would that Allah want it so." I cannot voice my marvelment that Spanish-speaking Catholics -- every day of their lives -- offer heartfelt prayer to Allah! Would that such reverence for "the other" take root among all peoples. Ojala'

(This correspondence is posted as "Heaven and Earth. East and West. Islam and Christianity" at http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/07/heaven-and-earth-east-and-west-islam.html)

On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 2:29 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:

What I have noticed about the Middle East is that they are in a time and place of complete empathy. Everything hurts. It is a culture that is all poetry and utterly lacking in science, industry and technology. It's totally out of balance. No wonder we say it's our oil underneath their sand. They didn't even know the oil was there, and when it was discovered they did not know what to do with it.

Now they are using imported smart phones to foment a revolution. But I would say, instead of waving the bloody flag, they might put up posters of the medieval Arabic scholars who had a balanced stance of poetry and reason and who guided our European ancestors toward this balanced vision.

I continue to study Arabic and find it very revealing. Here is my practice sheet for today. It says "the beautiful city" and I mean that to refer to Cairo  -- may the beautiful side of this great city come to flourish. This is a two-word poem, and it is an act of empathy, but I would wish for those young fellow fighting in the street that they would go home or to the cafe and study chemistry and physics and mathematics, and devise state-of-the-art solar energy projects and construct highly efficient desalinization plants.<beautiful city.jpg>

This practice sheet has not been corrected by my tutor and may contain mistakes.

--
Fred Owens
cell: 360-739-0214

My blog is Fred Owens

send mail to:

Fred Owens
35 West Main St Suite B #391
Ventura CA 93001