life and love of God.
Finally, like Teilhard, I do not want to exempt my own faith tradition from undergoing the disturbing phase transitions that occur in other evolving systems. In 1933, Teilhard wrote: “I believe Christianity to be immortal. But this immortality of our faith does not prevent it from being subject (even as it rises above them) to the general laws of periodicity which govern all life. I recognize, accordingly, that at the present moment Christianity (exactly like the mankind it embraces) is reaching the end of one of the natural cycles of its existence.” This is “an indication that the time for renewal is close at hand.”13
It is this call for renewal that has energized my own theological life and work. I realize that, for many Christians (perhaps even the majority), a prescientific understanding of the cosmos as static and immobile is the only legitimate framework for theological reflection. At the same time, scientific skeptics are uncomfortable with Christian theologies that fail to acknowledge the depth and expansiveness of the new scientific understanding of the cosmos. For them, prescientific versions of religion and religious thought do not lift up their hearts and give new incentive to their moral lives. Contrary to the judgment of cosmic pessimists, however, I believe that scientific discovery of an awakening universe is completely at home in a broadly construed theological metaphysics.
Finally, I want to thank Bradford McCall for organizing the following excerpts and Dr. Charles A. O’Connor for his gracious introduction. (To avoid conflating my present work with what I published earlier, I have decided to make only minor revisions to the material presented here.)
4. Paul VI, “Gaudium et Spes.”
5. Holy Office of the Vatican, “Warning.”
6. Francis, “Laudato Si.”
7. Teilhard, Future of Man, 75.
8. Teilhard, Future of Man, 75.
9. Harris, End of Faith, 35.
10. Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation, 60.
11. Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation, 61.
12. See Lonergan, Insight.
13. Teilhard, Christianity and Evolution, 94–95.
Books by John F. Haught
• The New Cosmic Story: Inside Our Awakening Universe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017.
• Resting on the Future: Catholic Theology for an Unfinished Universe. London: Bloomsbury, 2015.
• Science and Faith: A New Introduction. New York: Paulist, 2013. Later translated into Lithuanian and Chinese.
• Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and The Drama of Life. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2010.
• God and the New Atheism: A Critical Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008. Later translated into Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and Vietnamese.
• Christianity and Science. Maryknoll: Orbis, 2007. Later translated into Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese.
• Is Nature Enough: Meaning and Truth in the Age of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Purpose, Evolution, and the Meaning of Life. Ontario: Pandora, 2004.
• Deeper Than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in the Age of Evolution. Boulder: Westview, 2003. Later translated into Korean (Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title, 2003).
• Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution. New York: Paulist, 2001. Later translated into Polish, Portuguese, and Korean.
• God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution. Boulder: Westview, 2000. Later tanslated into Italian, Portuguese, Indonesian, Korean, Russian, and Slovak.
• Science and Religion in Search of Cosmic Purpose. Editor. Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2000.
• Science and Religion: From Conflict to Conversation. New York: Paulist, 1995. Later translated into Romanian, Korean, Persian, Urdu, Indonesian, and Chinese.
• The Promise of Nature: Ecology and Cosmic Purpose. New York: Paulist, 1993.
• Mystery and Promise: A Theology of Revelation. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1993. Later translated into Portuguese as Misterio e Promessa.
• What Is Religion? New York: Paulist, 1990.
• The Revelation of God in History. Wilmington: Michael Glazier, 1988.
• What Is God? New York: Paulist, 1986. Later translated into Spanish and Portuguese.
• The Cosmic Adventure: Science, Religion, and the Quest for Purpose. New York: Paulist, 1984.
• Nature and Purpose. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1980.
• Religion and Self-Acceptance. New York: Paulist, 1976.
Lectures by John F. Haught Published as Booklets by The American Teilhard Association
• Teilhard, Big History, and Religion: A Look Inside (Woodbridge, CT: American Teilhard Association, 2015)
• Darwin, Teilhard, and the Drama of Life (Woodbridge, CT: American Teilhard Association, 2011).
• In Search of a God for Evolution: Paul Tillich and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Lewisburg, PA: American Teilhard Association, 2002).
• Chaos, Complexity, and Theology (Chambersburg, PA: Anima, 1994).
1: Depth14
In relating to another person, whoever it might be, but especially if it is someone I love, I may observe the following: sooner or later, the other person will do something or say something that will surprise me. It may either delight or disappoint me. But if I am to sustain my relationship with the “other,” I will have to revise my impressions of him or her. I will have to move to a deeper level of understanding the other. And, after relating to the other person on this level for a while, I will find occasion after occasion to dig still deeper. Of course, I may resist the invitation to look deeper, and perhaps for the most part I do resist it. But it takes very little experience of other persons to see that there is something beneath the surface of my impressions of them. Other people are not what they seem to be. This is, of course, a truism so obvious that it seems almost too trivial even to mention. But perhaps
