The Divine Milieu

A new translation of what is widely regarded as Teilhard de Chardin's spiritual masterpiece, written in 1926-7 but remaining censored and unpublished until after his death in 1955. The first part considers the divinisation of both activity and passivity, moving between the polarities of attachment and detachment. Reflections of the spiritualisation of matter move beyond gravity to remind us of physical exuberance and the joy of growth. The French word 'milieu' suggests both context and centre, so the divine milieu means a centre with the power to unite 'in which all the elements of the universe touch each other by what is most interior and ultimate in them.' There is a beautiful limpidity about the translation but it did make me want to go back to the French original! A great contribution to Teilhard literature.