Teilhard de Chardin and the Mystery of Christ– Christopher F. Mooney, Image Books edition, 1968

Mooney was a Jesuit priest and contemporary of Teilhard who sought to present Teilhard’s thinking on the great ‘mysteries’ of Christianity, such as the position that Teilhard saw for the person of Christ as the manifestation of the ‘axis of evolution’.

The Phenomenon of Man – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Original English Translation 1959 by W.Collins Sons & Co, LTD; Reprinted in Perennial 2002

One of three books by Teilhard, this one contains his essential understanding of the rise of complexity from the big bang to the present, and his projection of human evolution as “convergent” upon a future ‘Omega Point’.  It also contains his integrative and comprehensive theory of human love as the energy of unification which precipitates the ongoing creation of the human person through ‘complexification’.

Man’s Place In Nature – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Harper and Row, Inc, New York, 1966

One of three books by Teilhard, this one is to some extent a more succinct restatement of “The Phenomenon of Man”.  It dwells less on the rise of complexity of matter and more on the rise of consciousness through the anthropoid human ancestors.  The last section, on the formation of the ‘noosphere’ is an excellent summary of his thoughts of how evolution continues to advance through the human person and society.

Activation of Energy – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Edition 1970 by William Collins Sons & Co, LTD

A collection of previously unpublished articles by Teilhard which articulates his understanding of Love as the principle energy which “unites human persons by what is essential in them to effect maturity”.

Human Energy – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1969 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

More unpublished papers which reveal Teilhard’s vast and deep sweep of thought.

Christianity and Evolution- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1971 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

This collection of previously unpublished works by Teilhard reflects his two strong beliefs that the basic tenets of Christianity actually support the view that Evolution effects the creation of the human spirit and that the beliefs of Christianity can be more sharply focused on intimacy with God and thus reinterpreted into more relevant forms.

Toward the Future- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1975 by William Collins Sons, Ltd

Another collection of previously unpublished works by Teilhard which speculate on the future of Mankind based on his understanding of evolution as creative energy.

The Divine Milieu- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1960 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

The second of the three books by Teilhard; this one focuses on his concept of God and relation to the human person.  This is the most ‘mystical’ of the three.

The Future of Man- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1964 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

More previously unpublished works on the future of evolution of the human person.

Hymn of the Universe – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, English Translation 1960 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

Excerpts from his other writings.

The Religion of Teilhard de Chardin– Henri de Lubac, English Translation 1967 by William Collins Sons & Co, Ltd

Lubac is another Jesuit priest and contemporary of Teilhard.  In this book he shows Teilhad’s basic ideas to be well within the framework of the Christian orthodoxy that he affirmed through his life.

The New Cosmic Story –  Inside Our Awakening Universe, John F. Haught, Yale University Press, 2017

Haught echoes Teilhard’s perspectives on cosmic evolution, and brings new principles of reinterpretation to a overview of traditional teachings of science and religion.  Specifically, he shows how traditional science and religion thinking can be brought into a more meaningful context when they are re-oriented into a perspective which considers the universe as unfolding toward a future filled with possibility rather than ‘falling’ from a past position of perfection.

The Cosmic Vision of Teilhard de Chardin – John F. Haught, Orbis Books, 2021

In this book, Haught explores Teilhard’s cosmic insights as they apply to religious and scientific concepts, and carries this exploration from his rethinking of bouth (The New Cosmic Story)  into a in-depth look into Teilhard’s vision of the universe as an unfinished work in progress.

God After Einstein –What’s really going on in the universe?, John F. Haught, Yale Press, 2022

Haught continues his expansion of Teilhard’s insight into the universe and our place in it in this book.  Here he compares Einstein’s model of universal causality, one framed in a mathematical but essentialy static understanding of time with Teilhard’s grasp of the dynamic nature of time which affords the universe with a causality capability of refining the essential ‘stuff of the universe’ into ever more complex manifestations leading up to the phenomenon of the human person with ‘consciousness become aware of itself’.

Cosmogenesis –An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe, Brian Thomas SWimme, Berkley: Counterpoint, 2022

In this semiautographical book, Swimme recounts his journey of making sense of the cosmos from an Einsteinian mathematical perspective to the Teilhardian perspective of Matthew Fox and Thomas Berry.  He interleaves his personal experiences with descriptions of the scientific discoveries which both provoke his interest as well as disturb the foundations of his beliefs.

Man Becoming – Gregory Baum, Herder and Herder NY, 1970

This book provides a relook at the writing of Maurice Blondel, who was a French theologian who preceded Teilhard in an attempt to make Catholicism more relevant to contemporary Christians.  Blondel is notoriously difficult to read, and Baum provides a more accessible  version of Blondel’s belief that traditional expressions of theology can be reinterpreted into terms of everyday life.

Falling Upward – Richard Rohr, Jossey Bass, 2011

This book offers a view of traditional Catholic teaching that has been reinterpreted in the light of such thinkers as Teilhard de Chardin, in which the basic teachings of Christianity are seen as more authentic in the teachings of Jesus than in the rule-based theology that was heavily influenced by the ancient Greeks.

The Universal Christ – Richard Rohr, Convergent Books, 2019

In this book, Rohr develops the theme of Teilhard de Chardin which distinguishes Jesus the person, from ‘the Christ’, identified by Paul as the universal principle by evolution effects ‘the person’.

Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations – Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation <cac@cacradicalgrace.ccsend.com>

These ‘daily meditations’ articulate Rohr’s reinterpretation of Catholic (and in general Christianity’s) teachings as summarized in his above book.

A General Theory of Love -Thomas Lewis, MD, et al, First Vintage Edition, January 2001

While reducing the phenomenon of human love to merely emotional reactions, this excellent book nonetheless provides a good understanding of human neurology and how it affects behavior, but pays too little attention to the role that reason plays in human relationships.

An Atheist’s History of Belief – Matthew Kneale, The Bodley Head, UK, 2013

While this book espouses an atheist point of view, it nonetheless is an excellent historical overview of the history of human behavior and the rise of religious belief.

Finding Darwin’s God – Kenneth R. Miller, 1999 Cliff Street Books

This book attempts to show that there is little conflict between centrist western religions and the general theory of Darwin’s Natural Selection.  Miller sees the conflict basically occurring between materialistic atheists and fundamental Christians, with the middle ground of believers and scientists more comfortable with both intuitive and empirical thinking.

Only a Theory – Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul – Kenneth R. Miller, Penguin Books, 2009

Like his other book (above), this book addresses the danger of such religious conservative thinking as Fundamentalism in fomenting an ‘anti-scientific’ mentality in America.

The Selfish Gene – 40th Anniversary Edition, Richard Dawkins, Oxford University Press, 2016

In this book, Dawkins offers an indepth exploration of both the interplay between the molecule and the cell in genetic evolution, and highlights the pre-cellular as well as the post-cranial phases of universal evoluton as it plays out on planet Earth.  He contrasts both to the prevaling concept of evolution as limited to ‘Natural Selection’.

Unweaving the Rainbow – Richard Dawkins, Mariner Books Edition, 2000

This book is Dawkins’ attempt to show the ‘cuddly’ side of atheism: that emotional meaning can be derived from a position which denies the existence of meaning.

The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins, 2006, First Mariner Books

This book is Dawkins’ strongest attack on religious belief.  Open any page and his disdain for religious belief, coupled with his elitist view of science, can be seen.  Much of his attack is against the irrational manifestations of religion, and no small amount can be seen to conflict with other of his viewpoints, such as his disbelief in the evolutionary increase in complexity contrasted by his insight that evolution creates complexity over time.

The Great Transformation – Karen Armstrong, Alfred A. Knop, 2006

Armstrong shows how the five great human religious movements emerged during the ‘Axial Age’ ( about 900 – 200 BCE)

Fields of Blood – Karen Anderson, Bodley Head Publishers, 2014

In response to the many atheistic accusations that most human conflict arises from religious beliefs, Armstrong asks, “As opposed to what?”

On Becoming a Person – Carl Rogers, Houghton-Miffin Sentry Edition, 1962

Rogers was one of the early “existentialist” psychologists, who believed that it was necessary for the psychologist to be ‘personally present’ to the client, that his personal investment in therapy was itself important to the healing which resulted.  This book became an essential guide to what was to become known as ‘pastoral psychology’

The Divine Conspiracy – Dallas Willard, 1998, Harper Collins, First Edition

Dallas Willard is well respected in the Protestant Evangelical community.  He provides a balanced view of this complex theological position.

Love- A History, Simon May, 2011, Yale University Press, First Edition

This, and the following three books constitute a small sample of the large volume penned by May.  It offers a detailed history of the way human relationships have played out in history, and excellent insight into the evolution of psychology.  He goes into great detail on Freud as an early pioneer.  This book overviews and summarizes his observations.  The next three go into great detail on love in the two eras as reflected in the titles.

The Philosophy of Love– Plato to Luther– Simon May, 1966, Random House

The Philosophy of Love– The Modern World– Simon May, 1966, Random House

The Philosophy of Love– Simon May, 2011, MIT Paperback

Origins – Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Norton Paperback, 2005

Tyson continues the journey of explanation from the TV “Cosmos” series, carrying scientific discoveries up to the present day.

Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind- Yuval Noah Harari, Harper Collins, 2015

This book is a strange combination of excellent explanations, seeming contradictions, anachronistic application of current values to past behavior, PETA exhortations and a longing for a seemingly more perfect past which we have left behind.  In many cases, his position on the human condition is not clear: is freedom possible for humans or are we restricted by inextricable biological chains?, are humans doomed to early extinction or will present trends of increasing human welfare continue?

The Cosmic Blueprint – Paul Davies, Touchstone books, 1989

Davies takes a look at the concept of evolution from the perspective of the increasing complexity of the universe over time.  He asks the question in his introduction, “Can known physical processes explain the continuing creativity of nature, or are there additional organizational principles at work, shaping matter and energy and directing them towards ever higher states of order and complexity?”

Religion and Science-Historical and Contemporary Issues- Ian G. Barbour, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997

This book is a very comprehensive review of thinking in both the scientific and religious communities.  While it leans toward a lack of conflict between them, it falls short of the strong confluence seen by Teilhard.

The Triune Brain – Jaak Panksepp, Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998.

This excellent article details discovery and description of the three ‘layers’ of the human brain: reptilian, limbic and neo-cortex.

The Great Partnership, Science, Religion and the Search for Meaning – Rabbi Jonathan
Sacks, Schocken Books, 2011

This excellent book traces the evolution of language, culture and religion through the formation of Greece from the near-east cultures about 500 BCE, showing the increasing influence of ‘left-brained’ (eg empirical) thinking on what had been centuries of culture dominated by ‘right brained’ thinking (eg intuitional).  His insights into the re-merging these two currents, as can be seen in Christianity, offer a basis of understanding religion in the context of human evolution.

A God That Could Be Real, Spirituality, Science and the Future of Our Planet – Nancy Ellen Abrams, Beacon Press, 2015

On the surface, this book would also seem to address the idea that God that can be accessed through science.  While offering an excellent explanation of ’emergence’, a phenomenon in which complexity naturally rises from otherwise simple components, she confuses the result with the cause.  Limiting God to that which emerges from ’emergence’ simply begs the question of what causes it.

How Jesus Became God,  Bart D. Ehrman, The Great Courses, 2014

In these notes from his Great Course Lecture, Professor Ehrman traces the evolution of the Church’s understanding of Jesus from that as seen in the ‘Synoptic’ Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) to the ‘Christ’ as seen in the Gospel of John.  He continues this evolution as it proceeds through the history of the Christian religion.

Misquoting Jesus, Bart D. Ehrman, Harper Collins Publishers, 2005

Professor Ehrman traces the development of the New Testament as it was originally transcribed by Greek scholars and frequently modified into the many manifestations in use today.

God’s Problem, How the Bible Fails to Answer our Most Important Question- Why We Suffer- Bart D. Ehrman, Harper Collins Publishers, 2008

Professor Ehrman examines Christian treatment of the problem of evil in the light of the Old and New Testament, and finds that neither the Old Testament nor Christianity offers a definitive position on this conundrum.

The Perennial Philosophy, Aldous Huxley, Harper & Brothers, 1945

Huxley examines the many expressions of religion to point out the common denominators among them.

The Evolution of the West, How Christianity Has Shaped Our Values, Nick Spencer, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2016

This book examines the part that Christianity played in the development of Western moral concepts.  It gives equal play to both the positive and negative sides of religion in Western history.

Inventing the Individual, The Origins of Western Liberalism, Larry Siedentop, London: Allen Lane, 2014

This book traces the history of certain values that are more articulated in the West than in other parts of the world, such as personal equality and the primacy of the human conscience.

Progress, Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future, by Johan Norberg, Oneworld Book Publications, 2016

Norberg takes on the pessimism that seems to be so in vogue in the West today, and so successfully capitalized on by the rising tide of Nationalists as seen in recent elections.  By offering actual statistics, he clearly shows the actual trends of human evolution in the positive threads that can be seen when actual data is consulted instead of ‘conventional wisdom’.  He organizes the metrics of human evolution into nine categories, each of which highlights not only the positive trends in play, but the speed at which they are rising and the elements of human capability which drive them.

Open, The story of human progress, by Johan Norberg, Atlantic Books, 2020

This book can be read as a companion to his book, “Progress’, in that it documents the recurring rises and falls that constitute human history in terms of the ‘openness’ to new ideas that benefit societies which eventually become ‘closed’ and inwardly focussed, to the eventual detriment of society.  He closely examines the great civilizations of history to show how these two phenomena occur, and how the ashes from one can become the fertilizer for the next.

Enlightenment Now, The Case For Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress, by Steven Pinker,  Penguin Random House, 2018

This book can be seen as a sort of companion to Norberg’s book, “Progress”.  While Norberg provides a ‘tornado of evidence’ for the advancement of human evolution (as seen in the increase in human welfare over time), Pinker’s book is more philosophical, and addresses what he sees as the cornerstone for this progress: the ‘Enlightenment’.  While not as empirical as Norberg, Pinker nonetheless reflects the same optimistic counter-intuitive position that Norberg articulates so thoroughly.

Making All Things New, Catholicity, Cosmology, Consciousness, by Ilia Delio, OSF,  Orbis Books, 2016

In this book Sister Delio addresses the subject of ‘catholicity’, by which she means the underlying connectedness of all things.  She conflates a simplistic understanding of ‘quantum physics’, much criticism of modernity (even suggesting a past ‘golden age’ which we must recover), and while sharply criticizing ‘dualities’, manages to create a few, such as the ‘good’ right brain undermined by the ‘bad’ left brain, and an understanding of science that comes across as orthogonal to religion.  Her thoughts are heavily influenced by Teilhard, but she avoids his ‘either/and’ approach, preferring one which is more ‘either/or’.
Much of this book, however, contains great insights and interpretations of Teilhard and many other writers who insist of an underlying ‘wholeness’ of all things which religion can be a rich resource for uncovering.

The Hours of the Universe – Reflections on God, Science and the Human Journey, Ilia Delio, Orbis Books, 2021

Much like the book, ‘Making All Things New’, Sr. Delio offers a collection of thoughts loosley based on Teilhard, offering a new duality, that of a somewhat anthropormorphic God which ‘evolves and suffers’ along with us.

God is a Person! – Enstatic Personhood and the Teilhardian Evolutionary Vision, Cynthia Bourgeault, Teilhard Studies Number 83, Fall 2021, The American Teilhard Association

This short work explores both Teilhard’s insights on the human person as an evolutionary product and the intricate relationship between the intuitive and empirical modes of human thinking.  Instead of explaining how God could be a person, she explores Teilhard’ insight that the increasing complexity of evolution leads to the ‘person’, which finds its ultimate manifestation in an union with God in which the unique nature of ‘personness’ is preserved.  She introduces the concept of the ‘enstatic’ mode of hbuman thought in which the empirical (logical, left brain) mode of the brain works collaboratively with the intuitive (mystical,right brain) mode.

The Corner of Fourth and Normal – Cynthia Bourgeault, 2022 Fortress Press,

 In this short work, Bourgeault outlines her approach to theology, explaining her idea of ‘centering prayer’, citing Teilhard and several other thinkers who bring the ‘cosmic spark’ within all humans into sharper focus.  Of particular note is her contrast between  Christian adaption of Eastern concepts and her (and Teilhard’s) insights.