Convergences: Teilhard De Chardin and Flannery O'Connor
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit-scientist- philosopher-theologian, begins his preface to The Phenomenon of Man: "If this book is to be properly understood, it must be read . . . purely and simply as a scientific treatise . . . This book deals with man solely as a phenomenon; but it also deals with the whole phenomenon of man." After a preliminary chapter on "The Stuff of the Universe," Teilhard de Chardin devotes his second chapter to "The Within of Things." "The whole phenomenon of man" demands a "kind of phenomenology or generalized physic in which the internal aspect of things as well as the external aspect of the world will be taken into account. Otherwise . . . it is impossible to cover the totality of the cosmic phenomenon by one coherent explanation such as science must try to construct." Just as Teilhard de Chardin, Christian and scientist, spent his life in the study of the whole man, so Flannery O'Connor, Catholic-Southern-writer, insisted that the work of the fiction writer who is also a Catholic is the whole man. As a fiction writer he must "render the highest possible justice to the created universe. This is the way the fiction writer works for God -- by making us see God's creation; and not just the beautiful or pretty things."
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations