Evolving Companionship
Exploring the Wisdom of
Teilhard de Chardin
A Four-Part Webinar Series
Presenters
John Haught
Lucy Tierney
Lisa McMinn
Dates
Duration
6 hours (total)
Webinar will be recorded.
“The most empowering relationships are those in which each partner lifts the other to a higher possession of their own being.”
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
A powerful encapsulation of the essence of the spiritual direction and companioning relationship from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a renowned Jesuit Priest, paleontologist and philosopher, best known for his radical blending of science and spirituality, and the subject of our new 4-part webinar series to be held in June 2024.
“We are not physical beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. It doesn’t matter if the water is cold or warm if you’re going to have to wade through it anyway. Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love!”
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We have lined up a powerful cast of presenters for this offering, including John F. Haught, Distinguished Research Professor at Georgetown University, specializing in systematic theology, and the connection between science and religion, who will speak to the connections between Teilhard, science and the spiritual quest; Lucy Tierney, an Australian spiritual director and author, who will consider Teilhard’s inner vital impulse of evolutionary love; and Lisa McMinn, a Quaker spiritual director who will explore Teilhard’s way of being in the world and also with God.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Credit: Wikipedia
About Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, (born May 1, 1881, Sarcenat, France—died April 10, 1955, New York, N.Y., U.S.), was a French Jesuit priest, paleontologist and philosopher. From a scientific perspective, he is best known for having directed the excavations at the Peking man site at Zhoukoudian in 1929. His philosophy was significantly influenced by his scientific work, which he argued helped prove the existence of God. He is known for his theory that mankind is constantly evolving, from multiple perspectives, toward a final spiritual unity that he called the Omega point. His major philosophical works, The Divine Milieu (1957) and The Phenomenon of Man (1955), were written in the 1920s and ’30s.
Teilhard sought an evolutionary metaphysic, and attempted to demonstrate that the most profound philosophical insights can be integrated with modern science, in as much as all physical manifestations point beyond themselves toward the production of more complex, evolved, and perfected unified beings.
Teilhard served in World War I as a stretcher-bearer. He received several citations, and was awarded the Médaille militaire and the Legion of Honor, the highest French order of merit, both military and civil.
His work has significant import for spiritual directors, and the people they companion, interested in the intersection of science and religion.
Sessions
Session 1: Teilhard de Chardin and Albert Einstein: A Conversation on Spiritual Life - John Haught
Session 2: Teilhard, Cosmology and Reasons for Hope - John Haught
In Prof. Haught’s personal journey toward a spirituality of hope, he has found support in a number of religious thinkers and philosophers, but he has traveled mainly in the company of Teilhard de Chardin and Alfred North Whitehead. In this presentation, Prof. Haught outlines how Teilhard’s cosmic sensitivity has guided him as he has dealt in the classroom and his books with the main questions in science and religion. Prof. Haught proposes in passing that Teilhard along with some aspects of Whitehead’s thought provides a fertile framework for a contemporary ecological spirituality.
Session 3: The Vital Impulse - Lucy Tierney
Lucy Tierney will delve into Teilhard’s concept of an “empowering relationship” with love within an evolving universe, where we are seen as “spiritual beings having a physical experience.” She will highlight how this understanding is essential for us to become who we are meant to be. In essence, Lucy will explore how to awaken the eye and ear of our hearts to engage in dynamic cosmic Love.
Session 4: Teilhard's Way of Being - Lisa McMinn
Find your teacher and follow them,” students were told, and Teilhard became Lisa’s. His fiery, inquisitive, optimistic love for the world and for God, paired with his vision of a transcendent Creator who was simultaneously immanently within all resonated deeply with her. As one recently engaging the heart and mind of Teilhard, Lisa describes her nascent journey, exploring how Teilhard’s life with God has shaped her own. She offers recommendations for approaching Teilhard as a teacher, and what he offers the practice of Spiritual Direction.
“Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.”
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
When
The webinar series will run 4 consecutive Mondays: June 3, 10, 17, 24 – 2 PM Seattle/Los Angeles, 4 PM Chicago, 5 PM New York, 10 PM London; June 4, 11, 18, 25, and May 1, 2024: 6 AM Hong Kong, 9 AM Sydney, Australia.
Find your own local time here.
This series has been scheduled to be convenient to as many people around the world as possible. With that said, if that timing doesn’t work, you can enjoy the webinar any time you like.
Each session is recorded so you can watch at your convenience.
Presenters
John Haught
John F. Haught is a Distinguished Research Professor at Georgetown University, specializing in systematic theology, with a particular interest in issues pertaining to science, cosmology, evolution, ecology, and religion. Professor Haught is the author of numerous books and articles, including Christianity and Science: Toward a Theology of Nature (2007), Purpose, Evolution and the Meaning of Life (2004), and Science and Religion: From Conflict to Conversation (1995). In 2002, Haught received the Owen Garrigan Award in Science and Religion, in 2004 the Sophia Award for Theological Excellence, and in 2008 a “Friend of Darwin Award” from the National Center for Science Education. He was deeply influenced by Teilhard de Chardin, and is one of his leading exponents.
Lucy Tierney
Lucy Tierney is an author, spiritual director, and inner wisdom consultant based in Brisbane, Australia. Now in her 80’s, Lucy is passionate about serving the human family with experiential resources to deepen personal spirituality. Lucy’s work is relevant for those with religious experience and is designed particularly to be relevant for those outside of traditional faith structures. In 2023, Lucy published Inner Invitations: A universal wisdom guidebook for nurturing inner balance, healing, and growth.
Lisa McMinn
Lisa McMinn, a spiritual director, author, retired sociology professor, and contemplative Quaker, meanders woods, and tends goats and gardens, listening for whispers of God. She embraces storied lives as part of a bigger story—all held in Love by the Source of all things. An Invitation to Slow, (co-authored with Mark McMinn) will release in 2025. Her website is Into the Woods Spiritual Care.
Additional Information
- Participants from all spiritual traditions and orientations are welcome in this webinar series as are those with all levels of spiritual experience.
- Each session will run 90 minutes. We understand that the timing of the seminar will not be convenient in every time zone on the planet. For those who have trouble making this time, a recorded copy of each session will be made available to all those who sign up.
- CEU credits are available for all those who participate. SDI will provide a certificate of completion for self-reporting to agencies. More information can be found here: continuing education units (CEUs).
- Cost: $149 for non-members, with significant discounts for SDI members
- Scholarships are available for those facing financial hardship. Please apply here.
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