{"id":1040,"date":"2023-06-05T01:46:13","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T01:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/?p=1040"},"modified":"2026-05-19T02:34:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T02:34:56","slug":"book-review-the-truth-about-teilhard-by-monsignor-leo-s-schumacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/?p=1040","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Truth About Teilhard by Monsignor Leo S. Schumacher"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Available at Archive.org<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Length of book: 46 pages<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numbering among the most infamous modernists, Teilhard de Chardin is considered one of the great theologians by many in the Post-Conciliar Church, from the lowest offices to the highest. For example, in 2014 the now-deceased Pope Benedict XVI praised the \u201cgreat vision\u201d of Teilhard de Chardin,<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> this being his idea that \u201cat the end we will have a true cosmic liturgy, where the cosmos becomes a living host.\u201d Anyone who takes up this brief work will recoil in horror at the very thought a papal claimant could say something of this sort, for within its pages one finds a concise and stirring summation of his errors, compacted with convincing refutations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most disturbing of de Chardin\u2019s false beliefs was his assertion that, having first accepted the noxious tenets of Darwinism, that the very universe itself is an organism on a course of \u201cevolution\u201d. Though humanity is the \u201chighest stage\u201d of this evolution, progress will march on until a new \u201csuper-humanity\u201d is born, which is \u201ca gigantic collective super-organism as well as a supreme consciousness\u201d (22). This in turn will lead to the \u201cChristogenesis\u201d of the universe, as Msgr. Schumacher relates:<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That phase of evolution, or at least, the highest part of it, in which man evolves into the superhuman, Teilhard calls Christogenesis \u2014 the universe becoming fully Christ.<\/p>\n(31)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Thus, it is from this disturbing genesis that de Chardin coins the term \u201cChrist-Universal\u201d, one suspiciously in tune with the later rebranding of the Feast of Christ the King as the Feast of the Christ, King of the Universe in the Novus Ordo Liturgy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christ and the Universe form a \u201cmysterious compound\u201d which he names the Christ-Universal. What prompted this combination title? It is simply another formulation of Teilhard\u2019s solution to his basic problem: how to reconcile the two religions, Faith in the Christian God and Faith in the Universe. It is done by identifying God and the Universe; in this context, Christ and the Universe. Thus we have the Christ-Universal.<\/p>\n(29-30)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Thus de Chardin\u2019s blasphemy that man will achieve apotheosis via “evolution” finds its way into the \u201clegitimate\u201d calendar of the Roman Rite!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Countering the presentation of de Chardin\u2019s attempt at presenting his concept of God as a kind of hivemind who annihilates the identity of the human person, Msgr. Schumacher catches Chardin in a theological quagmire:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Persons do not dissolve and vanish in God (false pantheism) but become more distinct in Him. Why? Because “union differentiates.” Union does nothing of the kind, but that does not phase Teilhard because he is bent on having his cake and eating it too. So he continues his efforts to square the circle. God is not all, but all in all. He is perfectly one, but supremely complex. \u2018The perfection of his unity lies in this complexity.\u2019 Though one, he is \u2018the distinct sum of persons\u2019 and can be defined only as \u2018a Center of centers.\u2019 God is both one and many, but this should not puzzle us because \u2018the one ceases to be opposed to the multiple.\u2019 Thus Teilhard\u2019s pantheism sinks in the quicksand of contradiction.<\/p>\n(27)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, on account of the thorough research of the author and his superb presentation of the facts, I heartily recommend this book. Published in 1968, it packs the same, if not more powerful punch as it did all those years ago\u2014it is surely a shame that it seems not to have gotten a reprint since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cNever was a man more a victim of self-deception.\u201d – Msgr. Leo Schumacher <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,25,43,8,40,10],"class_list":["post-1040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-america","tag-books","tag-europe","tag-faith","tag-france","tag-philosophy"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47330,"href":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/47330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmenidean.is\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}