I suppose I could write about more contemporary comparisons
when it comes to Teilhard's "scientific" ideas. As I discovered,
all I would have to do is look around. It's kind of curious that
Teilhard, himself, suffered so much when it came to his own
efforts. Though, nowadays, his sense of evolutionary science
may seem quaint, he truly believed that he had discovered the
Cosmic Christ alive and active in the world, in the universe.
Teilhard was a true man of faith, only different. His own church
authorities "silenced" him. Literally, during his entire adult life,
as a Jesuit, he was not allowed to publish any of his writing
when it came to his view of the Cosmic Christ. For these church
authorities, Teilhard's thought simply did not compute with their
doctrine or dogma. Teilhard was a man ahead of his time!
As for myself, at this point, I surely felt confused. Yes, I could
make modern scientific comparisons when it came to Teilhard's
thinking about Energy, about the Noosphere, even perhaps
about a Plenum undergirding our physical world; but I had yet
to understand any of this within the context of the Cosmic Christ.
Beyond this, when I was studying Christology (at the Jesuit
school in Berkeley), I felt that at most I was delving more into
theological speculation rather than observing Reality. I finally
had come to realize that the job of a theologian was not
necessarily the same as that of a scientist. Though I would
have liked it to be.
Still--even in a faith system--there need somehow be a basis
for "Truth." Still when it came to my studies of the Historical
Jesus, there was all this exposure when scholars started
integrating biblical studies with archaeology and cross-cultural
studies. These scholarly undertakings seemed to undermine
Jesus as we mainly understood him in the Church.
Of course I had to realize that before I began to study Christology
I was coming from a parochial background that didn't necessarily
lend towards deep study. So, yes, I was disappointed that my
originally small ideas about Jesus were being challenged. I
wanted a comfortable Jesus in whom I could take comfort.
Regardless, I decided to plod on with Teilhard. Perhaps I
might eventually come to understand the Cosmic Christ as he did.
However, even when it comes to Christology, approaching the idea
of the Cosmic Christ makes one a pioneer probing into the Unknown.
