The Human Phenomenon

...Now the poet and scholar Sarah Apple- the opportunity to respond to the com- The renowned biologist and essayist ton-Weber has given a more painstaking ments of a wide readership...

...That's fair enough...

...However, this focus on Old Order liberalism itself...

...Raymond also asked us to record him giving his lectures on John this year...

...At a time when the dia- profess to understand Teilhard's theoloers will find here a more accurate and re- logue of science with religion is flour- gy, but he does admire Teilhard's biololiable translation than the previous one, ishing it is worth asking once again gy...

...El Fr...

...This was not meant to had demonstrated more of an environ- be but we have discovered and remastered one of his earlier conferences...

...mental awareness...

...Thank you so much...

...However, his self as a "seer" may seem immodest, most lasting contribution to both reliIn Loving Memory of but they are really expressions of hon- gion and ecology will probably turn out Raymond E. Brown esty...

...He perceptively points out, for exthough Wall's Harper Torchbook version whether Teilhard's essay, originally pre- ample, that the Phenomenon had already is far from being unusable and it does have the advantage of being affordable...

...Sci- pology but also cosmology...

...Second, an ad- "in here" as rootless and the mindless into account all of the data available to equate science should not shut its eyes to universe "out there" as pointless...

...While this leader of a new "cult" and even associAppleton- Weber interpretation proved too ideological for ated him with the iniquitous Piltdown saes ncadcmir Pti s, 569.95, 320 1. his fellow scientists, Teilhard's enthusi- hoax...

...Jacques Monod accused him non during a period of virtual exile in of systematically "truckling" to milThe Human China in the 1920s and'30s...

...Its main mes- lenarian dreams...

...tions-reasonableness, reciprocity, mu- decisions like Wisconsin v. Yoder that grant What's at stake in Macedo's work is tuality, tolerance-to which religious broad parental control of children's edunothing less than our understanding of communities must subscribe in defend- cation...

...He does not visionary work of the last century...

...merits wide distribution...

...He naively assumed that those This means, first of all, that science count its latest great achievement, human who embrace the scientific spirit should, should attend to the "inside" of things consciousness...

...might have made if he had been given to science...

...If we our experience, including the experience the axis of directionality, the increasing could learn to see mind as an essential of ourselves as subjects, as conscious be- complexity-consciousness, in evolution...

...and even its survival-must eventually Based on Acts & other Early Sources-We are If scientists today complain about come to grips with evolution, Teilhard taken back to our roots-to a new sense of what Christian Community meant and means for us Teilhard's wild "extrapolations," some will always shine forth as a model of today as well...

...ebrated theory of punctuated equilibri- ed "human" world, but a universe that All of this, Teilhard believed, falls withum without labeling it as such...

...Shouldn't it take side" to Wall's "within...

...Morowitz cannot be understood objectively with- in the compass of science...

...school curricula (the "enforced secularMacedo's avowedly revisionist history ism" of which many today complain), tries to disentangle "legitimate civic pur- they in turn must set forward their reliposes" from the uglier passions of pub- gious convictions in ways that subscribe lic-school proponents...

...Daniel Dennett recently branded astic acceptance of an evolutionary un- him a "loser...

...Read- hold up today...

...e-mail from an attorney in Texas, USA, March 2000 Commonweal reader offer INCLUDING US OUT Both sets $88$89 * Both sets in full color presentation box ** All Postage & Packing already included ** public schools as inculcators of "liberal Checks payable to Welcome Recordingscivic ideals...

...A few respected scienderstanding of human origins was alarm- tists, most notably Julian Huxley and ing to his religious superiors, who found Theodosius Dobzhansky, have defendit hard to reconcile with church teach- ed him, but contemporary scientific John F. Haught ings on Original Sin...

...ness must itself be convergent on a cli- ahead...

...The relationship between 6 Upper Aston Hall Lane (Monastery entrance CW offer) Deeside Wales UK CH5 3EN American public education and "civic Mastercard / Visa orders accepted Tel orders 011 44 1244 818 111 ideals" has, of course, a checkered past...

...The question sciousness...

...Wall's serviceable English alive...

...Isn't subjectivity an objec- verse that gives rise to our conscious- will be debated increasingly in the years tive aspect of the universe...

...of his religious admirers wish that he courage and truthfulness...

...His In making his case for public schools can play in counteracting prejudice and latest book also goads libertarians, fun- that embody a strong civic agenda, the potentially repressive sway of famidamentalist advocates of school prayer, Macedo champions "liberal public rea- lies, churches, or other moral communiACLU liberals, and multiculturalists...

...SusSTILL A CLASSIC pected of unorthodoxy by members of his own church during his lifetime, Teilhard has not fared well with the domiindebted to Sarah Appleton-Weber for nantly materialist disposition of evoluher loving and lucid work...

...Political consciously Protestant, assimilationist front public life with what the author philosopher Stephen Macedo sees things overtones of common schools did little to calls "prickly sensitivity...

...Indeed, ready cational excellence in the basic tenets of liberal democracy" on the declarations of the sovereignty of liberal C face of the violence, declin- part of the church may partly explain re- public reason like Macedo's can help exing test scores, and bureaucratic incom- sistance to public schools, but the self- plain why religious groups often conpetence of the public schools...

...He son" and outlines certain ideal condi- ties...

...Sabbatical Students It'''elconu' 7135 Minstrel Way Columbia, MD 21045 1-800-382-4723 e-mail: mcdonald@lovola.edu L(U)LLxxM'r 410-312-7644 FAX Commonweal 24 4 September 22, 2000 seen...

...His occasional references to him- itly ecological sensitivity...

...to the tenets of liberal public reason...

...This inUnfortunately, by insisting that the true spirit of science should lead us to advertence diminishes not only anthroPhenomenon should be read as a work practice a radical form of empiricism...

...Macedo stresses the role public schools are a threat to liberal democracy...

...he thinks Catholic schools allay Catholic fears...

...Perhaps we are still too "modern" to be simply that he taught us how to Universally acclaimed as one of the greatest to define science so widely that it em- love the earth without having to turn Scripture scholars ever...

...sented as a work of "science," can still make a significant contribution...

...North Whitehead, Teilhard thought the that which is truly unique to it...

...Church be willing to admit that what we mean And to those who believe that religion6 Audio Cassettes $39 by science is not as radically empirical for the sake of its intellectual credibility (Recorded in London 1998) as we may have thought...

...For this reason the following tapes to the general public rectional and convergent character of alone he will find his place among the The Beginnings of the the cosmos...

...verse so long as we leave out of our acutation...

...Harold Morowitz has recently issued a rendition of what is arguably the most How well does Teilhard's major work more balanced assessment...

...For example, "centuries of side of a liberal public reason that many praised as models of edu- often quite effective opposition to the experience as oppressive...

...a real treasure...

...We cannot of science rather than of metaphysics or ence should consider the full range of ex- seriously aspire to understand the unitheology Teilhard did not help his rep- perience, leaving nothing out arbitrarily...

...We can only hope that cellence integrated with the publishers will soon issue an inex- MASTER OF ARTS IN LITURGICAL STUDIES preparation for spiritual pensive paperback edition...

...This rejection was not only emo- Interestingly, many of his critics are E translation of Le Phenomene tionally distressful to the brilliant Jesuit themselves metaphysical materialists humain has been the main paleontologist, but it stood in the way of who consider their own ideas comaccess many of us have had to Pierre Teil- any improvements or corrections he pletely free of assumptions extraneous hard de Chardin's most important book...

...No doubt Teilhard believed that At any rate, the "phenomenon" Teil- mactic unity, a destiny that Teilhard he was simply telling us what he had Loyola College d Degrees of Compae.uon and Competence body Pastora mind Counse in spirit Master of Science in Pastoral Counseling Master of Arts in Spiritual and Pastoral Care Certificate of Advanced Study (C.A.S...

...Stephen Jay Gould, disPhenomenon sage is that there is an overall direction- gusted by Teilhard's intuition that evoPierre Teilhard de Chardin ality in evolution toward increasing lution has a direction, saw him as the Translated by Sarah "complexity-consciousness...

...MASTER OF ARTS IN PASTORAL MINISTRY Fellowships and full tuition This authoritative edition, movingly MASTER OF ARTS IN LITURGICAL MUSIC scholarships available...

...differently...

...Fax orders 011 44 1244 535 663 Diversity and Distrust Nineteenth-century common-school Official Publishers Qf R E_ Brown Cassettes Civic Education advocates like Horace Mann and Josiah in a Multicultural Society Strong combined a desire for creating a Stephen Macedo liberal democratic citizenry with xeno- ately and unfairly burdened by publicHarz' rd Unfu'ersitit Press, $45,343 pp...

...9 am finding the John lectures very informative indeed...

...Only the arbitrary modof all people, be willing to open their and not restrict its gaze to the outside em segregation of mind from nature has eyes...

...Richard Boyd Unfortunately, a similar feel for histori- However, Macedo ignores how this cal complexity in characterizing Catholic "bargain" already stacks the deck on the atholic schools are often views is absent...

...But then perhaps we should most important Christian thinkers ever...

...If religious groups de- Amish, Christian fundamentalists, and and right, Macedo defends the role of serve the right not to be disproportion- Catholic opponents of public schooling Commonweal 2 5 September 22, 2000...

...phobia, anti-Catholicism, and nativism...

...Isn't science, after all, bound to an (Appleton-Weber prefers the term "in- made it possible to look upon the mind empirical imperative...

...English-language readers for many years to come will be deeply Commonweal 2 3 September 22, 2000 anticipated Gould's and Eldredge's cel- hard examines is at bottom not an isolat- refers to abstractly as "Omega...

...Why, if we intend to be truly sci- And, third, since human knowing can- verse, a whole new sense of the cosmos entific, do we post a No Entry sign at not function without assuming unity and of ourselves would follow...

...Those who have Collegeville, Minnesota 56321 never read Teilhard before will find this new translation very inviting, and those already familiar with him will appreciate the precision that was sometimes lacking earlier...

...Like most other reli- John F. Haught teaches theology at Georgegious thinkers of his day, Teilhard did town University...

...Like William James and Alfred scurely, through filters that screen out of divine "special creation...

...Against critics on the left ing their values...

...Doctor of Philosophy in Pastoral Counseling (Ph.D...

...An example for us all...

...rather than accidental aspect of the uniings...

...Appleton- MASTER OF DIVINITY Weber's polished translation certainly and pastoral leadership...

...His most recent book is God The Gospel of John not have what we would call an explic- after Darwin (Westview...

...with the ear of your heart" - Rule of Benedict, Prologue Unfortunately, the price of this new version ($69.95 in hardback) will hardly make Teilhard's vision more accessible MASTER OF ARTS IN THEOLOGY Programs of academic exto many today...

...A narrower could also have noted that Teilhard's out taking into account the human-and "science," " one that restricts its focus only book effectively defuses anti-Darwinian along with it the element of interiority or to the "outside" of things, cannot see the creationist efforts to interpret the infre- consciousness that runs throughout na- "human phenomenon" at all except obquency of transitional fossils as evidence ture...

...In 1998 he made the unique decision to allow us to release braces the fact of subjectivity or the di- our backs on heaven...

...introduced by Brian Swimme, contains numerous illuminating footnotes by the translator, including references to revi- J Saint John's sions during the manuscript's history Sch of of Theology . Seminary prior to publication...

...tionary scientists and philosophers since Teilhard wrote most of the Phenome- his death...

...the point where the cosmos exposes an and intelligibility as its goal, science But is this attention to the world's "interior" dimension of emergent con- may legitimately conclude that any uni- "inside" really science...

...The Vatican too got works on evolution, if they refer to Teilinvolved and refused permission to pub- hard at all, accuse him of drawing conver since 1959, Bernard lish his major work while Teilhard was clusions unwarranted by the evidence...

...Listen...

...He is dubious about Supreme Court is an equal-opportunity dissenter...

...12 Audio Cassettes $59 "Probably the greatest talks ever given on the Gospel of John...