TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

When I read Activation of Energy by this French theologian and man of science, this Gallic Sweitzer, it had the effect of a revelation on me, confirming me in my own, at the time, tentatively-held suppositions reached independently but tending in the same general direction, the direction of 'Point Omega', a term used by Teilhard de Chardin to define the culmination of spiritual evolution ... achieved through a gradual convergence, in 'centro-complexification', of pure mind, corresponding to a 'noosphere' of cosmic consciousness, towards this Omega Point - the entire process of heavenly evolution interpreted in terms of a 'Christogenesis', or realization of Christ in the Universe.

Baffling? Yes, to the extent that, for all his scientific evolutionism, de Chardin is fundamentally a Catholic theologian, and he remains one even in the context of such seemingly revolutionary terminology as that to which I have just referred, which supplement and clarify his basic Catholic allegiance.

Thus whilst in one sense de Chardin is revolutionary, in another sense he isn't so much reactionary as ... traditionalist, and consequently held back, as though by an ethical anchor, from the spiritual freedom of a truly revolutionary and progressive ideological position, corresponding to a true world, or global, religion. If he is the nearest thinker to the formulation of such a religion within Christian terms and traditions, he is yet limited by his Catholicism from achieving a genuinely revolutionary breakthrough onto a higher plane - the plane, one might say, of the Second Coming. He remains, deep down, a Christian humanist whose 'Christogenesis', whilst assuming spiritual implications, attaches too much importance to the Resurrection and the articles of faith, deriving from this theological postulate, of a spiritual Christ 'On High', consanguineous with the Holy Ghost. We must, in de Chardin's estimation, follow Christ's example and attain, in due process of Christogenesis, to the Omega Point.

This is all very well - up to a point! But still limiting us to Christian reference, the very thing that will not and cannot serve as the basis of a truly global religion, since one is of necessity dealing with millions if not billions of people of non-Christian descent who would be unable to take kindly to the notion or prospect of a quasi-Christian conversion!

However, for all his conservatism and obvious identification with Western civilization, de Chardin was an exceptional man, even a kind of genius, and we need not disparage such terms as 'Point Omega' and 'centro-complexification' (a self-explanatory term identified with the process of higher evolutionary progress), even if terms like 'Christogenesis' and 'noosphere' are somewhat limited in global applicability or, as in the latter's case, of doubtful authenticity.

Certainly I prefer not to think of the 'noosphere' as a kind of spiritual halo surrounding the Earth, like a cosmic field, but as a level of pure mind which unites the practitioners of transcendental meditation in a universal consciousness - a consciousness transcending thought. The noosphere of the mind, then, beneath rather than above the clouds!