Evolving Humanity and Biblical Wisdom

Teilhard de Chardin, twentieth-century paleontologist and Jesuit, envisioned an explosion in global communication that could expand human consciousness to the point of universal empathy. In the process, he joined his scientific knowledge to his religious faith. Exploring Teilhard's ideas in biblical texts, Marie Sabin discovers that his vision has ancient seeds. In the book of Job, in the Gospel of John, and in Proverbs' feminine Wisdom, as well as in the gospels' Christ, she finds a persistent theme of evolving human consciousness. The texts ground Teilhard's futuristic thought in ancient wisdom, while Teilhard's evolutionary insights give these ancient voices contemporary relevance.

Marie Noonan Sabin holds a PhD in English from Yale and an MA from Union Theological Seminary. She has taught English at Vassar, Barnard, and Douglass, and the Gospel of Mark at Bangor Theological Seminary. She is the author of Reopening the Word: Reading Mark as Theology in the Context of Early Judaism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) and The Gospel According to Mark in the New Collegeville Commentary Series (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2006).