CANCELLED

This program will explore Teilhard de Chardin's notion of "theogenesis" or the rise of God in evolution. Teilhard thought that evolution requires a new understanding of God in a world where consciousness is increasing with complexity. We will look at the relationship between consciousness and matter and explore the emergence of God through writings of Teilhard de Chardin and Carl Jung, among others. We will also briefly explore the relationship between theogenesis and trinitization in view of human action and Jacob Boehme's idea of quaternization.

My purpose is to explore Teilhard’s theogenesis as the ground of a Christocentric universe, and to show that Christogenesis is the unfolding of divinity in space-time. The universe is God coming to be fully the Christ through creative union in love.

Resource Person: Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF, PhD, is a Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC and an American theologian specializing in the area of science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics and neuroscience and the import of these for theology. Ilia currently holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University, and is the author of twenty books including Care for Creation (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2008), co-authored with Keith Warner and Pamela Woods which won two Catholic Press Book Awards in 2009, first place for social concerns and second place in spirituality. Her book The Emergent Christ (Orbis Books, 2011) won a third place Catholic Press Book Award in 2011 for the area of Science and Religion. Her books include The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution and the Power of Love (Orbis, 2013), which received the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award and a third place Catholic Press Association Award for Faith and Science. Ilia holds two honorary doctorates, one from St. Francis University in 2015, and one from Sacred Heart University in 2020.

She received her doctorate in Historical Theology from Fordham University. A prolific author, her many articles and abstracts testify to her wide field of knowledge in the subjects of evolution, spirituality and the universe story. Dr. Delio’s autobiography book is Birth of a Dancing Star: From Cradle Catholic to Cyborg Christian (Orbis, 2019).

Bibliography:

Delio, Ilia. Re-Enchanting the Earth: Why AI Needs Religion. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2020.

Goff, Philip. Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness. Pantheon, 2019.

Todd, Peter B. The Individuation of God: Integrating Science and Religion. Wilmette, IL: Chiron Publications, 2012.

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. Christianity and Evolution, trans. René Hague. New York: William Collins & Sons, 1971.

Hymn of the Universe, trans. Simon Bartholomew. New York: Harper 7 Row, 1961.