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The Journals of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.
We are privileged to announce the culmination of a major project that will make available to researchers the private journals of the paleontologist and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. (1881-1955). The journals were written between 1915 and 1955, and comprise about 2,000 pages. (There is a gap in the collection from 1925-44; Teilhard wrote those journals while in China, and left them behind when departing the country.) Until now, the journals of 1915-19 existed only in the original French version, and those up to 1922 in a German translation; but after years of labor, the entire collection has now been transcribed into printed format for use by those seeking to fathom the world-view of this seminal Jesuit thinker. This represents one of the most important scholarly endeavors in Woodstock's history; and we hope that it shall prove a blessing and a treasure to the Society of Jesus, and to the entire scholarly world.
Teilhard was the rarest of polymaths: his thoughts flowed effortlessly from French to German to English to Latin to Greek, as his mind reached for the perfect word to represent an idea; and he often utilized the symbols of physics, chemistry, and mathematics to encapsulate ideas, questions, and entire arguments that words could not fully express. His early journals are mostly linear and restrained in the appearance of their text; but by later decades, his thought had flowered so greatly that the pages leap with drawings, equations, and the visual reflection of his intellectual activity.
We wish to express our gratitude to Woodstock associate fellow Nicole M. Schmitz-Moormann for her devotion in seeing this project to its conclusion - and for ensuring that every nuance of Teilhard's journals has been faithfully preserved in electronic format. Indeed, Teilhard's thought grows more relevant each day, as we advance deeper into our "electronic age." His revolutionary studies of consciousness speak of a "noosphere" enveloping our world - a sphere of thought and information exchange that transcends the "biosphere" of our material existence, and is developing into "a real nervous system of Humanity, of common consciousness." In this age of cell phones, e-mail, and the "wireless web," not a few scholars appreciate Teilhard's prescience! Woodstock is happy to aid in preserving Father de Chardin's own irreplaceable contribution to the noosphere.