Recommended Books
Gaudium Et Spes (On the Church in the Modern World) of December 1965 was one of the most important documents issued by the Second Vatican Council.
For Teilhardians it’s fascinating to read the document while keeping an eye open for passages that were clearly inspired by, or at least reflect, the ideas of Teilhard de Chardin, who in 1965 was still the subject of the Vatican Monitum of 1962.
Gaudium et Spes is readily available on the internet.
Just Trust Life: A Journey with Teilhard de Chardin by Christine M Tracy – Iphis – March 2025
“In this gritty memoir about tackling life’s challenges with the promise of transcendence, Teilhardian scholar Christine M. Tracy illustrates how seemingly chance encounters with Teilhard’s work catalyzed her emotional and spiritual expansion. To read Just Trust Life is to receive a download of Teilhard’s mystical energy – his love as an evolutionary force. Yet this book is much more than a poetic and practical introduction to the life and teachings of this revered mystic..”
The Story of the Noosphere by Brian Thomas Swimme and Monica DeRaspe-Bolles – Orbis – October 2024
“This book is the latest edition of Brian Thomas Swimme’s cosmological work. Together with philosopher Monica DeRaspe-Bolles, Swimme explores heredity, tools, reflective consciousness, communication, population, trade, cerebralization, and convergence across four eras of human history. Based on contemporary science and empirical data, the book challenges readers to move past Modernity’s overemphasis on rationality and embrace the dynamism of imagination and reflection, into the noospheric era – the unification of humanity. The book has an accompanying YouTube series.”
A Zest for Life by Amy Edelstein – Emergence Education – September 2024
“The author explores the evocative correspondence between Teilhard and his cousin, Marguerite Teilhard-Chambon. These letters share the remarkable evolutionary vision of a human soul reaching for greater and greater divinity and have the power to uplift and inspire. In her book Amy turns passages from Teilhard’s these letters into poems, while keeping close to the original text and focusing on Teilhard’s passion for the possible.” (American Teilhard Association 2025)
Christianity and Evolution by Teilhard de Chardin Possible Historical Representations of Original Sin (“no acceptable place for Adam”) which got him into hot water with Rome and led to his being made to sign the equally notorious Six Propositions in 1925, by which he affirmed his belief in the Church’s traditional teaching about Adam. Interestingly, he never really changed his mind, as we see here in the late essay, Reflections on Original Sin (1947), in which he wrote that his theory “releases us from the necessity of having, illogically, to derive the whole human race from one single couple”.
The Vision of the Past by Teilhard de Chardin – translated by J.M.Cohen – Collins 1966
Various essays, including one called The Phenomenon of Man, a 1930 precursor of his magnum opus of 1939. Also includes Hominization: introduction to a scientific study of the phenomenon of Man, which introduces Teilhard’s fundamental ideas on the subject as early as 1925.
The American Teilhard Association has just published the monograph Teilhard Study 90 – Across the Gulf of Seven Hundred Years: Aquinas and Teilhard’s Metaphysics of Union by Donald Wayne Viney.
Teilhard’s metaphysics differed from Aquinas’s, “reimagining God not as unchanging perfection but as the embodiment of perfect changes”.
If not a member of ATA you can buy a copy by emailing kduffy@chc.edu
In Mercé Prats’ new biography of Teilhard she says, “I could only call him the Moses of the 20th century!”
This book is currently available in Italian as Pierre Teilhard De Chardin: Una biografia, published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana, and also in French as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Biographie, published by Salvator. An English translation will be available in due course.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: The Mass on the World: The 100th Anniversary International Celebration – edited by Kathleen Duffy, SSJ
This book features a variety of essays written by international Teilhard scholars as well as members of Teilhard’s own family: Marie Bayon de la Tour and Olivier Teilhard de Chardin. The essays reflect on a variety of topics such as Teilhard’s life and his work. Its organizing theme is the celebration of one of Teilhard’s most beautiful essays, “The Mass on the World.”
Just Trust Life: A Journey with Teilhard de Chardin – by Christine M. Tracy – Iphis Press,1 March 2025
“In this gritty memoir about tackling life’s challenges with the promise of transcendence, Tracy illustrates how seemingly chance encounters with Teilhard’s work catalyzed her emotional and spiritual expansion. To read Just Trust Life is to receive a download of Teilhard’s mystical energy—his love as an evolutionary force. Yet this book is much more than a poetic and practical introduction to the life and teachings of this revered mystic. Through finely tuned scenes from Tracy’s life, we learn what it means to be a ‘spiritual being having a human experience’. As Teilhard’s spirit accompanied her through struggles with addiction, infidelity, divorce, a house fire, and a near-death-experience, Tracy realizes that we are never alone—and we have the power to wake up.”
See also Tracy’s website: ournoosphere.com
Heart of My Own Heart by John-Francis Friendship – Canterbury Press 2024
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was formerly popular, but nowadays is less so. Fr. Friendship’s book explores the history of this practice, and suggests many ways in which such devotion would still be very valuable. And in “The Cosmic Heart” chapter he quotes Teilhard, who was devoted to the Sacred Heart: “Under the symbol of the Sacred Heart the divine assumed for me the form of fire… It is in the Sacred Heart that the conjunction of the divine and the cosmic has taken place”.
Why Us? How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves by James Le Fanu – Harper Press 2010
Dr. Le Fanu explores the flaws in Darwin’s theory of evolution, and goes on to examine the weaknesses of materialism. The double helix, the mystery of how genes do what they do, and how the brain works are some of the subjects covered.
Living Cosmology: Christian Responses to “Journey of the Universe” – edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim – Orbis Books 2016.
Journey of the Universe is a book and a film about the story of the universe from the Big Bang to the present. Living Cosmology is a series of essays by theologians, ethicists and activists, and includes statements by Pope Francis and the Oecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Conscious Energy and the Evolution of Philosophy by Joe. P. Provenzano – En Route Books 2021
“This is a book about philosophy, but it is a book for everyone—everyone who has ever wondered about the meaning of the universe and human life—because it addresses two fundamental questions: What’s it all about? and How should we live?… It was around 1975 that I began to see how the basic ideas of Teilhard de Chardin could be used to develop a philosophy that provides a means to answer these questions.”
Rising Up Into the Divine: World Mystics on the Ascent of Your Soul by Lucia Lena Hodges – Inner Sound Press 2023
“Have you ever wondered where your soul goes after you die? Mystics have direct experience of the Divine, and they are surprisingly consistent in their answers to this question. Venture through the centuries in this well-documented book, which draws on their writings from over a dozen world religions to consider these provocative questions.”
The last chapter, called “The Starry Ascent of Humanity”, includes a section on Teilhard de Chardin’s ideas. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C91DKWKT
Letters to Two Friends by Teilhard de Chardin.
Teilhard’s letters are always a good read, and this volume is almost a diary. When it was originally published, in 1968, the “two friends” chose to remain anonymous, but we now know they were Rhoda de Terra, who is featured in the film Teilhard: Visionary Scientist, and Ida Treat, who is not.
The Jesuit and the Skull: Teilhard De Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man by Amir D. Aczel – Riverhead Books 2007
Amir D. Aczel is a visiting scholar in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University, an affiliate professor at the University Of New Hampshire, a research fellow at Boston University, and a Guggenheim fellow.
See https://www.reuters.com/article/world/book-talk-author-aczel-hopes-to-shine-new-light-on-priest-idUSN26225353/
Towards a New Mysticism: Teilhard de Chardin and Eastern Religions by Ursula King, Collins 1980. Teilhard spent many years of his life working in China, but he also visited other countries in the Middle and Far East. Professor King’s book is an illuminating study of how Teilhard reacted to Eastern religions.
Toward the Future by Teilhard de Chardin. This collection of essays includes My Fundamental Vision, which includes concepts referred to by Slattery in his article The extent and impact of racism and eugenics in the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Thomas Aquinas and Teilhard de Chardin: Christian Humanism in an Age of Unbelief by Donald J. Goergen OP – 2022
“In an increasingly divided and secularized world, in an age of unbelief, we yearn for increased unity, for a sense of the transcendent, for a humanism that does not force one to choose between God and the world. This humanism requires an integration of ancient wisdom with modern learning, or, one might say, faith and reason, religion and science, Christology and cosmology. As the Gospel of Matthew puts it, the sage goes into the storehouse to bring out both something old and something new. To this Christian humanism both Thomas Aquinas and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin have significant contributions to make. One is not forced to choose between them but rather to see in these two visionaries—one medieval, one modern — complementary insights. One philosophically precise, the other scientifically trained, they challenge us to look again at our search for wholeness, for holiness. Can we see something of what they saw? Can we seek something of what they sought?”
The Not-Yet God: Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Relational Whole by Ilia Delio, Orbis Books 2023
“We are a species between axial periods. Thus our religious myths are struggling to find new connections in a global, ecological order. Delio proposes the new myth of relational holism; that is, the search for a new connection to divinity in an age of quantum physics, evolution, and pluralism. The idea of relational holism is one that is rooted in the God-world relationship, beginning with the Book of Genesis, but finds its real meaning in quantum physics and the renewed relationship between mind and matter. Our story, therefore, will traverse across the fields of science, scripture, theology, history, culture and psychology.”
Three Windows on Eternity: Exploring Evolution and Human Destiny by Allerd Stikker – Watkins Publishing
“Three Windows on Eternity is an exploratory voyage past the frontiers of our knowledge and scientific understanding. It has led the author to inspirational insights about the role of the individual human being in the current phase of the evolutionary process. The author takes the reader on a journey through evolution from the Big Bang to the 21st century.”
Teilhard’s Mathematical Analogies and the Tradition of the Church by Laura Eloe – the American Teilhard Association’s Teilhard study number 87
“Because in our own time few people have training in all the fields Teilhard engaged in his work, it has taken the work of many scholars to illuminate the theological, philosophical, and scientific currents that help us understand Teilhard’s work. This essay is part of an attempt to do the same with mathematics, a field less frequently discussed as deeply informing Teilhard’s thought.”
Science and spirituality: an alliance starting from the big bang: a life journey by Johan Germonpré – Amazon 2023
“How did life originate? What is the future of humanity and our planet? Is there a purpose? Does our life have meaning? Is there life after death? In this revealing book, answers are sought through the most recent sciences: quantum mechanics, evolution and relativity. The sublime story of the universe and life unfolds before us six laws of evolution, which also manage the future of humanity.”
This book is truly Teilhardian – “only connect” sums it up, perhaps. Interweaving the main text with the author’s personal experiences and suggestions was an excellent notion, and for non-scientists (the book’s intended readership) the sections on quantum physics are a particular boon.
2023 is the centenary of Teilhard de Chardin’s Mass on the World. Pope Francis referred to his fellow Jesuit when he visited Mongolia in September, saying, ““To celebrate Mass in this land brought to my mind the prayer that the Jesuit Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin offered to God exactly a hundred years ago, in the desert of Ordos, not far from here”. And he quoted, “Radiant Word, blazing Power, you who mould the manifold so as to breathe life into it, I pray you, lay on us those your hands—powerful, considerate, omnipresent”.
Mass on the World is to be found in The Heart of Matter and The Hymn of the Universe, collections of essays by Teilhard.
See also Teilhard’s Mass: Approaches to The Mass on the World by Thomas M. King, SJ.
Teilhard de Chardin: A Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan and Libby Osgood – Orbis 2023
This Book of Hours is divided into eight days, and further subdivided into Dawn, Day, Dusk, and Dark. The first seven days follow weekly evolutionary themes, and it concludes with an eighth day, ‘Tomorrow,’ to honour Teilhard’s vision of the future.
“In this lovely book, two seasoned religious scholars have traced the vein of hope-filled prayer running throughout the writings of Teilhard de Chardin. Setting Teilhard’s prayers, reflections, and meditations in the format of liturgical hours, the editors have produced a creative, readable, and inspiring work.” John F. Haught, author of The Cosmic Vision of Teilhard de Chardin.
Process Theology – Newman Press 1971. Process theology – the belief that ultimate reality is a process of ongoing change – developed from the process philosophy of A.N.Whitehead (1861-1947). This book features essays on the theology, and includes articles by and about Teilhard de Chardin, e.g. The Problem of Evil in Teilhard’s Thought by Georges Crespy.
Teilhard in New York by Tracy Higgins. The American Teilhard Association’s latest Teilhard Study. To order, visit the ATA website – https://teilharddechardin.org/
Teilhard visited the USA several times, and spent the last years of his life (1951-1955) in New York. Tracy Higgins describes his life in America in detail. (There is a useful plan of Teilhard’s New York in Cowburn’s Teilhard biography, Wipf and Stock 2013, p.102.)
Teilhard’s Mass: Approaches to “The Mass on the World” by Thomas S. King S.J. – Paulist Press 2005.
Fr. King, who died in 2009, was a professor of theology at Georgetown University, USA.
Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI quoted Teilhard’s Mass with approval. All the more reason to read this excellent study of Teilhard’s prayer.
In a recent University Challenge (BBC tv) contestants were asked to complete a quote from a book by Flannery O’Connor inspired by Teilhard de Chardin, no less. The quote was “Everything that rises must…” Alas, nobody knew the answer, which was, as you see from the BTN Home page, “…converge”. O’Connor was a Catholic American from the Deep South, and Everything that rises must converge is the title of a story about racism; the book with that title is a collection with that story plus eight others by her. Worth investigating, though be aware that the text is pre-sensitivity readers.
(Does anyone know the exact source of the quote? Is it indeed “Omega Point”?)
Teilhard’s Mysticism: Seeing the Inner Face of Evolution by Kathleen Duffy – Orbis 2014
“Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), a French Jesuit priest and scientist, charted a new path in reconciling Christian theology with evolutionary science. Here, a theologian-scientist examines Teilhard’s mysticism, showing how science can illuminate the mystical path, while also demonstrating the compatibility between Teilhard’s thought and current frontiers in scientific exploration.”
Human Sexuality in St. John Paul II and Teilhard de Chardin by Bernard J Fleury – Create Space Independent 2017
Eleven articles by Bernard Fleury, Professor Emeritus at Westfield State University and a Roman Catholic Permanent Deacon. The articles are about various aspects of what it is to be a human being, e.g. What if among all living animal bodies, the human body is unique? What if our bodies, male and female, reveal who we are scientifically and theologically? What if Wojtyla’s (later John Paul II) concept of the Theology of the Body has its roots in St. John of the Cross’s personalism?
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin – a selective summary of his life by John Cowburn S.J.
Fr. Cowburn was like Teilhard a Jesuit priest, and his short biography naturally brings the special insight you would expect from a fellow member of the Society founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola. The book is remarkable for being the first in-depth study of the relationship between Teilhard and Ida Treat, the American Communist with whom, Fr. Cowburn tells us, Teilhard fell in love, as depicted in Paul Bentley’s play Inquisition.
Creation and Evolution: a conference with Pope Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo.
This book consists of papers given at a conference at the papal summer residence in 2006. Topics include Evolution and Design, Intelligent Design, the Problem of Creation, and the Debate about Evolution. It concludes with a discussion by the various participants.
Teilhard de Chardin: The Search For The Light In Evolution – pub. CreateSpace 2018. This work is by Bernard J Fleury, Professor Emeritus at Westfield State University and a Roman Catholic Permanent Deacon.
“Achieving a knowledge of Purpose Driven Evolution, an understanding of the importance of the human person, me, in the development of the Earth… What if “seeing correctly” is the only way for me to see my real place in the development of the Earth?”
Gaudium et Spes – the Church in the Modern World – by Vatican Council II
This document, dated 1965, often features Teilhard’s thinking, for example when it says that Christians “must fuse all human effort, domestic, professional, scientific and technical in a vital synthesis with religious values”. Which is ironic, because in 1962, the same year the Council opened, the Vatican issued a formal Monitum against his writings…
The Full Extent: An Inquiry into Reality and Destiny by Richard Botelho, 1 June 2022
“Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is an inspiration. He has influenced much of my work.” Thus the author, which is interesting, because whereas Teilhard believed that matter gave rise to consciousness (see The Phenomenon of Man), Botelo believes consciousness gave rise to matter, as is shown by quantum physics. A challenging read.
See Richard Botelho – Author of The Full Extent and Reason for Existence
Une parole attendue, la circulation des polycopiés de Teilhard de Chardin by Mercè Prats – Salvator May 2022, pp.282
In the late 1920s Rome banned Teilhard from publishing his unorthodox views on Original Sin and evolution. So if he wanted people to study his thinking, the only option was to distribute copies of his essays and books to friends and colleagues. In this fascinating historical and literary investigation Mercè Prats tells the story of a publishing phenomenon like no other.
With a doctorate in Contemporary History, Mercè Prats is a lecturer at the University of Reims. She is also the archivist at the Teilhard de Chardin Foundation at the Institute of Human Paleontology, Paris.
Teilhard de Chardin on Love: Evolving Human Relationships by Louis M Savary and Patricia H. Berne – Paulist Press 2017
The authors expound Teilhard’s doctrine of love on every level, from God to friendship, marriage, parenting and the human community. “A masterly illumination of love as the core energy of evolving life.”
You Matter by Delia Smith – Mensch Publishing 2022
Delia Smith taught the UK how to cook, and now she has written a book inspired by Teilhard de Chardin. She believes that a strong, unified, global community is the only possible way forward. Hence, for example, she supports the UN, the EU, Black Lives Matter, and thinks we should stop the climate changing. Food for thought.
Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World by John Philip Newell – San Francisco, CA: HarperOne, 2021
“The wisdom of Celtic spirituality is needed today to help heal the earth, overcome our conflicts, and reconnect us to the sacredness of the earth and one another. The author shows us how this earth-based spirituality can help us rediscover our connection with God, with each other, and with the earth. The book includes the wisdom of Teilhard de Chardin, who inspires us to see how science, faith, and our future tell one universal story that begins with sacredness.” (ATA Teilhard Perspective Fall 2021)
Catholic Christianity in Evolution: The Spiritual Prophecy of Teilhard de Chardin by Alan Sage -Sussex Academic Press – June 2021
The author looks at Teilhard’s contribution in the context of 20th century Catholic theological development leading up to Vatican II, and introduces his spirituality as outlined in Le Milieu Divin.
Teilhard De Chardin – The Divine Milieu Explained: A Spirituality for the 21st Century
by Louis M. Savary – Paulist Press International
“A series of ground-breaking spiritual methods that integrate science and faith according to the evolutionary spirituality of Teilhard de Chardin’s The Divine Milieu.”
The Cosmic Vision of Teilhard de Chardin by John Haught – Orbis – December 2021
“An expert in Teilhardian thought brings together for the first time Teilhard in conversation with other significant religious thinkers, philosophers, and scientists, including Kant, Whitehead, Barbour, Moltmann and Tillich, on topics ranging from the problem of suffering to astrobiology… Each chapter explores a different topic-including the cosmos, spirituality, suffering, thought, God, and life-and how each topic has developed the author’s own theology. In particular, Haught focuses on the cosmic future and the implications of Teilhard’s thought for this century and beyond.”
Man’s Place In Nature by Teilhard de Chardin
“The aim of the present work is strictly limited: it is to try to define experientially this mysterious human by determining, structurally and historically, its present position in relation to the other forms assumed around us, in the course of ages, by the stuff of the cosmos.”
So it is no surprise that Teilhard refers to Father Lemaître’s “primitive atom” (aka The Big Bang)…
Christianity and Evolution by Teilhard de Chardin
Essays by Teilhard, including the notorious Note on Some Possible Historical Representations of Original Sin (“No acceptable place for Adam”) which got him into hot water with Rome and led to his being made to sign the equally notorious Six Propositions in 1925, by which he affirmed his belief in the Church’s traditional teaching about Adam. Interestingly, he never really changed his mind, as we see here in the late essay, Reflections on Original Sin (1947), in which he wrote that his theory “releases us from the necessity of having, illogically, to derive the whole human race from one single couple”.
Teilhard de Chardin on the Eucharist: Envisioning the Body of Christ by Louis M. Savary. Paulist Press International, U.S. (2 Feb. 2021)
“This work re-interprets and re-envisions traditional Eucharistic theology and related prayer forms to fit an evolving universe, and introduces some of Teilhard’s evolutionary perspectives, showing how the Eucharist is a living symbol of the ongoing incarnation―or transubstantiation―of the entire cosmos.”
Evolution’s God: Teilhard de Chardin and the Varieties of Process Theology by Donald Wayne Viney.
This is the latest of the American Teilhard Association’s Teilhard Studies. Available to ATA members. Anyone interested in Teilhard can join the ATA.
Memories of Teilhard de Chardin by Helmut de Terra.
Like Teilhard, his friend de Terra was a distinguished geologist and palaeontologist, and they worked together in Kashmir, the Himalayas, Central India, Burma and Java. A good read.
The Letters of Teilhard de Chardin & Lucile Swan, Georgetown University Press, 1993
For 25 years Teilhard and Lucile were close friends, but she wanted to be more than that. He didn’t. She once wrote, “You compare me with Ida (Treat). I can only say that if Ida had the same kind of feeling, it would have been IMPOSSIBLE for her to marry…” Indispensable reading for anyone interested in Teilhard.
Creative Evolution by Henri Bergson, authorised translation by Arthur Mitchell, Macmillan 1960.
Teilhard was 30 when he first read this book. He had already accepted the idea of evolution but Bergson gave him a vital insight: Darwin was wrong in claiming that evolution is blind and mechanical. Bergson said there is a creative urge in evolution, a current passing from germ to germ, an immense wave, starting from a centre and spreading outwards – the elan vital. Teilhard however believed Bergson was wrong in saying that evolution is like a shell which is fired from a gun and suddenly bursts into pieces, and those pieces burst into more pieces, and so on. Evolution diverges, there is no master plan. Teilhard of course disagreed strongly…
Lettres Intimes de Teilhard de Chardin à Auguste Valensin, Bruno de Solages, Henri du Lubac, André Ravier: 1919-1955. Introduction et notes par Henri de Lubac, Paris:Aubier-Montaigne, 1974.
Includes the letters from 1926-28 which tell us much about the relationship between Teilhard and the American Communist Ida Treat, the relationship which forms a major element in Paul Bentley’s play Inquisition. See also John Cowburn’s biography of Teilhard.
Science and Christ by Teilhard de Chardin.
A collection of essays dating from 1920 to 1955, the year Teilhard died. The essay My Universe is of particular interest because although it was written in 1924, some 14 years before Teilhard’s central work, The Human Phenomenon, it features many of the principal ideas embodied in that book: that the universe has a direction, that even elementary particles must possess a spark of spirit, that the more complex an organism is the closer it is to consciousness, that matter and spirit are not two separate things but are two directions of Evolution, that Christ is Omega, the goal of the universe. And more: that human work has an absolute value, an idea developed in The Divine Milieu of 1926. If Teilhard had only written My Universe we would still have the key to his fundamental vision.