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From: DB Cates <cates_db@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: Re: Teilhard de Chardin - new documentary
Date: Sat, 18 May 2024 17:17:44 -0500
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On 2024-05-18 3:54 PM, erik simpson wrote:
> On 5/18/24 11:24 AM, *Hemidactylus* wrote:
>> Martin Harran <martinharran@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> (RNS) - In the history of the Catholic Church, too many innovative
>>> thinkers were persecuted before they were accepted and then embraced
>>> by the church.
>>>
>>> The list includes St. Thomas Aquinas (whose books were burned by the
>>> bishop of Paris), St. Ignatius Loyola (who was investigated by the
>>> Spanish Inquisition) and St. Mary MacKillop (an Australian nun who was
>>> excommunicated by her bishop for uncovering and reporting clergy child
>>> sex abuse).
>>>
>>> It's not surprising, then, that a French Jesuit scientist, Pierre
>>> Teilhard de Chardin, who tried to bridge the gap between faith and
>>> science, got himself in trouble with church officials and his Jesuit
>>> superiors in the 20th century. Only after his death was he recognized
>>> as the inspired genius that he was.
>>>
>>> His story is magnificently told in a new PBS documentary, "Teilhard:
>>> Visionary Scientist," which was produced by Frank Frost Productions in
>>> a 13-year labor of love. It took Frank and Mary Frost to four
>>> countries on three continents, a total of 25 locations, and included
>>> more than 35 interviews.
>>>
>>> []
>>>
>>> "Teilhard: Visionary Scientist" will premiere on Maryland Public
>>> Television on May 19 and be available for national and international
>>> streaming for two years, beginning on May 20, on the free PBS app.
>>>
>>> https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2024/05/13/pierre-teilhard-de-chardin-pbs-documentary-247920
>>>
>> Will this awkwardness be included in the magnificent retelling?:
>> “Teilhard has been criticized as incorporating common notions of Social
>> Darwinism [sic] and scientific racism into his work, along with 
>> support for
>> eugenics,[41] Teilhard sharply criticized the idea of racial equality,
>> saying in 1929: "Do the yellows—[the Chinese]—have the same human 
>> value as
>> the whites? [Fr.] Licent and many missionaries say that their present
>> inferiority is due to their long history of Paganism. I'm afraid that 
>> this
>> is only a 'declaration of pastors.' Instead, the cause seems to be the
>> natural racial foundation…"[41] Too, he said in 1936, "As not all ethnic
>> groups have the same value, they must be dominated, which does not mean
>> they must be despised—quite the reverse…In other words, at one and the 
>> same
>> time there should be official recognition of: (1) the primacy/priority of
>> the earth over nations; (2) the inequality of peoples and races."[41] And
>> around 1937, he said, "What fundamental attitude…should the advancing 
>> wing
>> of humanity take to fixed or definitely unprogressive ethnical groups? 
>> The
>> earth is a closed and limited surface. To what extent should it tolerate,
>> racially or nationally, areas of lesser activity? More generally 
>> still, how
>> should we judge the efforts we lavish in all kinds of hospitals on saving
>> what is so often no more than one of life’s rejects?…To what extent 
>> should
>> not the development of the strong…take precedence over the 
>> preservation of
>> the weak?"[41]
>> In 1951, Teilhard continued to argue for racial and individual eugenics,
>> and wrote a strongly worded criticism of the United Nations 
>> declaration of
>> the Equality of Races. He continued to argue for eugenics as late as 
>> 1953,
>> two years before his death.[41] Nevertheless, he has also been 
>> defended by
>> theologian John F. Haught.[42][43]”
>> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin
>>
>> https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/teilhard-eugenics
>>
>> https://ejournals.bc.edu/index.php/ctsa/article/view/11473/9623
>>
>>
>>
> These views were (or should have been) anachronistic circa 1950, 
> although many still subscribe to the notion.  That said, I'm impatient 
> with "cancellation" of figures from the past for holding views that were 
> "common knowledge" at the time.  Very few people in the 19th century 
> would escape being called racist by modern standards.  There is such a 
> thing as progress, even if it's not always obvious.
> 
I don't think calling for avoiding hagiography is the same as calling 
for "cancelling".
-- 
--
Don Cates ("he's a cunning rascal" PN)