Here's some quick notes I pulled from two sites. I haven't any opinion yet, so I am putting these up for comment:
Teilhard insists that only by cultivating our moral sense of obligation to life can we overcome our present fear and anxiety for the human future. For him the fundamental law of morality is thus to liberate that conscious energy that seeks further to unify the world. This is the energy of human love, an impulse toward unity, an impulse of mind and heart that manifests itself particularly in the relish a person has for creative tasks undertaken from a sense of duty.
http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/sj/scientists/teilhard.htm
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What is far less well known is the fact that Teilhard was also a fervent Christian mystic and a deeply caring pastor of souls who helped many of his friends and acquaintances in their understanding of the Christian faith. Thus his large corpus of writings represents in many ways a modern form of Christian apologetics, for throughout his life he reflected with much courage on the meaning of the Christian gospel in the light of modern science, especially in relation to evolution.
Teilhard,s thought is a fine modern example of reflecting on the old philosophical problem of "the one and the many", of seeing the individual human being as part of the whole of humanity, and of seeing humanity as part of the stream of life within an evolving world and cosmos. In many ways we can consider his thought as very ecological, for he could not see the human being except as part of nature, as being an integral part of the larger natural environment. To see the human being in relation to humankind, and humankind in relation to life, and life in relation to the universe, that is the basic plan of his book The Phenomenon of Man which deals with the stages of "Pre-Life", "Life" and "Thought" in the past, followed by a discussion of the next stage, that of "Survival"- of a greater, fuller life. In this vision the human being is not a static centre, but "the axis and leading shoot of evolution". The rise of evolution is an immense movement through time, from the development of the atom to the molecule and cell, to different forms of life, and to human beings with their great diversity. This movement shows how the development of ever greater material and structural complexity leads in turn to an ever greater "within" of things, an increase in consciousness and reflection. He calls this development of greater complexity and accompanying greater concentration and interiority the "law of complexity-consciousness", now sometimes referred to as "Teilhardian law".
Teilhard,s thought brought together in one vision cosmic, human, and divine dimensions, which for him are all centred in Christ. Each of these dimensions is involved in a process of becoming, or what he calls genesis, a word which he used for creating many new terms: "Cosmogenesis" refers to the birth of the cosmos, "anthropogenesis" and "noogenesis" refer to the specifically human birth and the birth of thought. All these processes of growth are studied in minute detail by modern science, whereas "Christogenesis", referring to the birth of God in Christ as an event of cosmic significance and proportion, can only be seen through the eyes of faith. For Teilhard cosmic and human evolution are moving onwards to an ever fuller disclosure of the Spirit, culminating in what he calls "Christ-Omega".
This development is not automatic; it involves human responsibility and co-creativity, so that Teilhard,s mind was much exercised by the moral and ethical responsibilities for shaping the future of humanity and the life of the planet, but also for advancing the life of the Spirit. He enquired into the spiritual energy resources which are needed to create a better quality of life, greater human integration and a more peaceful and just world. He was fond of saying that we have thousands of engineers to calculate the material energy reserves of the planet, but where are the "technicians of the Spirit" who pay attention to the spiritual energy resources which can nurture and sustain the life of individuals and of the whole human community by feeding the spirit? For him, the spiritual heritage of the different world religions are most important; they provide us with our most precious spiritual energy resources. Human beings are responsible for their further self-evolution, for a higher social and cultural development and a greater unification of the human community, but ultimately these goals are only achievable through spiritual rather than merely material resources, and the greatest of these is represented by the powers of love. Using organic metaphors, Teilhard sees Christianity as a "phylum of love" which centres and channels these unitive powers of all-transforming love that alone can bring human beings more closely together. The theme of love is so strong and central in his thought that his entire work can be called a metaphysic and mysticism of love. Teilhard was convinced that we must study the powers of love as the most sacred spiritual energy resource in the same way that we study everything else in the world. Teilhard,s vision of the world and the human being was a vision of love; it was a spirituality that celebrated the wonders of creation, a spirituality "that acknowledges love as the clearest understanding we have of God, of ourselves, of history, and the cosmos", to quote the theologian David Tracy.
Teilhard,s thought represents a unique blend of science, religion and mysticism among religious thinkers in the modern world. His entire work is shaped by a deeply personal and mystic Christian faith in understanding the world and human beings.
Teilhard spoke of the "three natures" of Christ: the human, divine, and cosmic, an idea which other theologians need to develop further. He once described himself as the "apostle of the cosmic Christ" and he held such a dynamic, innovative and at the same time profoundly faithful view of Christianity that he provided the outlines for a new interpretation of the distinctive message of the Christian faith in the modern world. But traditional Christians often find his ideas, expressed through new words and difficult concepts, both challenging and unsettling; some have even accused him of being heretical and not a Christian at all, but rather a prophet of the New Age movement. This is of course a complete misunderstanding of his message. Yet it is true that his own Church misunderstood him during his lifetime, because the Catholic Church found it difficult then to accept the modern scientific teaching on evolution, especially regarding the origins of the human being, which contradict the biblical stories of human creation and the Fall.
In our current situation of cross-cultural encounter and growing global interdependence, Teilhard,s thought on evolution as a converging process is also worth reflecting on. He considered evolution as ultimately convergent, that is to say as moving eventually towards greater unity, or towards a unity-in-diversity. Within his wider, evolutionary understanding of the human being and of the world as a whole, many of his ideas are particularly relevant to contemporary discussions on globalisation, which is not only happening in the area of international economics and finance, but also in the area of cultures and religions. Teilhard was not uncritical of religion, for in his view all religions, including Christianity, are too past-oriented. They cannot offer ready-made solutions for the problems of the present world; yet their insights can still inspire and animate human thought and action. In Teilhard,s words humanity is in need "of a faith - and a great faith - and ever more faith", but it needs "a faith in a state of expansion", not numerically so much as qualitatively, by fostering world-transforming love and justice, and by promoting worship "in spirit and in truth". He ascribed an important evolutionary role to the religions themselves in providing essential ideas for the further development of the human community. In Teilhard,s view religions must grow greater and more clearly defined to the extent the human beings are becoming more adult.
http://www.farmington.ac.uk/documents/old_docs/pr3.html
