From Terror to Joy

Impermanence May Be the Raw Material for Nothing Less Than Theosis

The Jesuit paleontologist, writer and mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) travelled to China in 1923 to do geological research; while there, he wrote one of his most beautiful and lyrical essays, “The Mass on the World” (found in his book Hymn of the Universe). Written as an extended prayer, the essay begins with Teilhard acknowledging that in…