born May 1, 1881, Sarcenat, France
died April 10, 1955, New York, N.Y., U.S.
French philosopher and paleontologist.
Ordained a Jesuit priest in 1911, he taught geology from 1918 at the Institut Catholique in Paris. In 1929 he directed the excavations at the Peking man site at Zhoukoudian . This and other geological work won him high honours, though it came to be disapproved of by the Jesuit order. His philosophy was strongly informed by his scientific work, which he believed helped prove the existence of God. He is known for his theory that mankind is evolving, mentally and socially, toward a final spiritual unity that he called the Omega point. Though his major philosophical works, The Divine Milieu (1957) and The Phenomenon of Man (1955), were written in the 1920s and '30s, their publication in his lifetime was forbidden by the Jesuits.
Teilhard de Chardin
© Philippe Halsman