#16 Awakening Consciousness
The Not-Yet God:
Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin and the Relational Whole by Ilia Delio, OSF
Précis by Helene O’Sullivan, MM
Chapter 2
TEILHARD DE CHARDIN AND THE HUMAN CONVERGENT
Anselm of Canterbury clearly argued that the core of Christian faith is based on the fall of Adam and Eve, for, if Adam had not sinned, then Christ would not have come. Pope Pius XII affirmed the doctrine of original sin and the concept of inherited guilt due to a single couple in his 1950 encyclical, Humani Generis. Science is telling us something very different about matter and personhood, however, something that ultimately makes a difference as to how we conceive of the human person and thus how we conceive of religion.
THE HUMAN PHENOMENON: THE THREE STAGES OF EVOLUTION
Teilhard’s paradigm for the build-up of life can be described in three stages of evolution: increasing organization, convergence, and the radiation of consciousness throughout the whole.
The first stage is one of increasing organization. Unfolding life is an incredible confluence of processes working together, testing new relation-ships, picking up and moving when the right time comes.
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In Teilhard’s view:
“Life has constructed organisms of ever greater complexity, and with this increased complexity the organism has also shown an increase in consciousness,
that is, an increase of intention, of acting with a goal.”
The second stage is one of convergence toward a projected point of maximum human organization and consciousness. In the course of evolution, the human person emerges from a general searching of the world; thought is born.
The third stage is the maximization of thought whereby consciousness radiates throughout the whole, in every aspect of the cosmos, as the cosmos is recapitulated on the level of the human person.
In light of evolution, Teilhard described the human as distinct in three ways:
#1 - The extreme physic-complexity of the human brain indicates that
the human person is the most highly synthesized form of matter known in the universe.
#2 - The human is the most perfectly and deeply centered of all cosmic particles;
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#3 - The high degree of mental development (capacity for reflection, thought) places the human person above all other conscious beings known to us, not in an ontological sense
but as an example of the growth of complexity in all cosmic life. Teilhard defines reflection as:
“The power acquired by a conscious-ness to turn in upon itself, to take possession of itself as an object … no longer merely to know, but to know that one knows.”
The human person therefore is essential to the continuation of evolution because we are evolution on the level of self-reflective thought. How we think is how we act and how we act shapes what we become. To reflect upon the mind as an instance of pure creative activity is to gain an insight into the nature or deeper reality of the universe as a whole.
Modern philosophy has interpreted the mind as a distinct center of intellectual power, disconnected from the outer universe. Quantum physics tells us otherwise: there is no outer universe without the inner universe because there is no matter without mind. We have mastered the outer universe sufficiently to know that it is much larger than we could have ever imagined.
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Our attention now needs to shift to the inner universe if we are to understand the whole of reality. The inner universe is not secondary to the outer universe. If religion is a function of consciousness, then religion and spirituality may have as much authority as science to tell us how the universe works. Religion is fundamental to evolution.
RELIGION AS COSMIC PHENOMENON
Religion, therefore, is not strictly a personal matter of personal belief but is integral to nature. In his essay “The Spirit of the Earth,” Teilhard wrote that the true function of religion, not always clearly perceived in the past, is to sustain and spur on the progress of life. Thus, the religious function increases in the same direction and to the same extent as the development and growth of the human in evolution.
As nature changes, religion changes. The sacred ordering of nature is an ongoing process. Religious meanings do not disappear; they change, and new forms of treating nature as sacred are generated.
The function of religion is to create stories of mythic depth,
stories of meaning and purpose that animate human life
toward wholeness and goodness.
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Spirituality proposes what reality can become. Teilhard understood that our idea of nature has changed along with our ideas of the sacred largely because science and technology have redefined our world. The scientific and technological transformation of nature belongs to the new story of religion. Teilhard sought a new story of the whole, Omega in evolution.
To articulate this story, he emphasized that religion grows continuously with the human being
by taking on a new form with each new phase of humankind. Unless religion changes and adapts to the evolving world, it cannot do what it has the capacity to do: Enkindle a zest for life!
Western religion is about a personal, Absolute Someone at the heart of the universe, drawing the world into the fullness of unity. Eastern religion is about attaining pure consciousness of the whole.
On the human level, religion is expressed on the levels of thought and action; however, no one religion can satisfy the religious spirit of the earth. Religion is directly concerned with the universe and its evolution toward Omega.
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As Teilhard wrote: The comparative value of religious creeds may be measured by their respective power of evolutive activation.
Religion is to energize the human toward greater wholeness and unity. Faith in Omega is faith in the power within to increase life in the face of resistance; the power to create, change, to become something new.
Carl Jung came to a similar conclusion. Both Teilhard and Jung contribute to a new religious myth
of relational holism that will cause your heart to stop or to beat faster. Either way, we are in the midst
of a God revolution.
#16 ~ For Private Circulation Only ~ June 2024
The above input is from Chapter 2 of the Précis by Helene O’Sullivan, MM, of Ilia Delio’s The Not Yet God: Carl Jung, Teilhard de Chardin and the Relational Whole, Published 2023 by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY 10545.