Spirit of Fire – The Life and Vision of Teilhard de Chardin

I reviewed this book when it first came out, and now a further 20 years have passed since the death of Teilhard de Chardin in 1955. It is a moving, informative and sympathetic account of his fascinating life, with all its difficulties and challenges. He was born into aristocratic circumstances, which perhaps helped give him a certain independence of mind. He entered the Jesuit order in 1899, spending time in Jersey, Egypt and England during his training. He was interested in geology and palaeontology from an early age and spent many years in China from the 1920s onwards. It is clear that his experience as a stretcher bearer during the First World War made a great impression on him, but during this time he also wrote some significant mystical works. Like Rupert Sheldrake, he was fundamentally influenced by Henri Bergson, who contributed to formation of his evolutionary vision with many terms such as the noosphere and the Omega Point that have passed into common usage.

The chapter on faces of the feminine introduces the importance of love and his long friendship with his relation Marguerite Teilhard-Chambon. Ursula describes his intense relationship with the American sculptress Lucile Swan from 1932 and the enormous inner struggles both underwent - he in relation to remaining true to his vocation despite the censorship of the authorities. He even gave her his private diaries in order for her better to understand his situation. Seeing them together in one of the many photographs in the book conveys a strong impression of closeness. Teilhard had many friends and supporters, both personal and professional, but the initiative remained with the authorities and his central ideas remained unpublished. In her postscript, Ursula reflects on Teilhard's legacy and its progress over the last twenty years. People from across a wide range of disciplines have been inspired by his work. She mentions the mutual embeddedness of noosphere and biosphere, for instance in connection with ecological justice, reminding readers that the noosphere was for him a deeply spiritual dimension. Above all, she says, his love of life and deep hope can still speak to us today. I strongly recommend this book, especially to readers unfamiliar with his life, but also as a reminder of one of the great and visionary lives of the last century. It is richly illustrated with black and white photographs and contains many inspiring sidebar quotations from his work.