Kathleen DUFFY. Teilhard’s Struggle: Embracing the Work of Evolution. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2019. pp. 148. $20.00 pb. ISBN 978-1-62698-317-5. Reviewed by Calvin MERCER, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858.

A century ago, at age 38, paleontologist and Jesuit theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin completed an essay, “The Spiritual Power of Matter,” written in the wake of a transformative mystical experience in which he was forewarned of some of the major obstacles he would confront in the coming years. A century later, respected Teilhard scholar, Kathleen Duffy, uses this essay as inspiration and basis for her own reflection on “Teilhard’s struggle.”

As Duffy points out, “The essay is full of drama and challenge; the scene ominous—a desert storm, an ambiguous force, a Voice whose name is Matter, and the patriarchs Moses, Jacob, and Elijah, all of whom were drawn to follow the road of fire.” (xvii)
There is nothing strikingly new in this work, but that is in no way a fault. Duffy makes Teilhard accessible to a wide audience. And for Teilhard experts, this slender volume can be a quick and delightful read, beautifully done by an author who is intimate with the life and work of this revolutionary thinker. A Sister of St. Joseph, Duffy has a PhD in molecular physics, giving her the background to fully appreciate Teilhard as scientist and his profound, mystical appreciation of Matter.

Thoughtful chapters are devoted to Teilhard the person, scientist, mystic, friend, believer, Jesuit, faithful member of the Church, and lover of the world. In each of these chapters, Duffy skillfully weaves together themes and references from a wide variety of Teilhard’s work, including his letters.

I was particularly impressed with Duffy’s sensitive treatment of Teilhard’s difficult relationships with women, and in particular his commitment not to violate his vow of chastity in the context of his journey of friendship with Lucile Swan, American sculptress and portrait artist.

Throughout the book, Duffy attends to evolution as the foundational paradigm animating and informing Teilhard’s theological reflections, mystical experience, and his unfortunately long and unsuccessful (during his life) struggle with his Order and the Church to publish his magnum opus, The Human Phenomenon.

In her foreword, Ursula King, herself a widely published Teilhard scholar, points out that Teilhard is more frequently cited than in previous decades. One of the important ways Teilhard can be a guide in our time has to do with his incredibly creative embrace of evolution from a Christian perspective, helpfully informing and guiding a science and religion debate that is only going to grow.

Duffy points out that while Teilhard, as geologist and paleontologist, was an expert on the science of the past, his relevance is very much as a pilgrim of the future. While she does not expand on it, Teilhard can be a valuable guide with regard to a Christian assessment of artificial intelligence and other fast-developing technologies radical human enhancement. There will be no easy answers, but Teilhard’s creative embrace of evolution, appreciation of the cosmic Christ, proposal of the Noosphere model, and anticipation of the Omega Point of creation are all valuable grist for the theological mill in the brave new world aborning. Struggle? Yes. And we have a guide.