Pierre Teilhard DeChardin

French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), theologian and scientist, was renowned for his pioneering fieldwork in paleontology. His visionary writings on the reconciliation of faith and evolutionary theory aroused the suspicions of Vatican officials; as a result Teilhard was forbidden to publish on religious matters during his lifetime.

After his death the rapid publication of his many books-among them The Hymn of the Universe and The Divine Milieu-marked him as one of the most influential Catholic thinkers of the 20th century-a mystic whose holistic vision speaks with growing relevance to contemporary spiritualty and theology today.