The Spread of Teilhard de Chardin's Ideas in the Lithuanian Diaspora

Abstract

The article explores the debates and interpretations of the work of the French scholar and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in the Lithuanian diaspora community. The reception of his ideas, that took place among the thinkers of the diaspora has not yet been started to be researched, even though discussions in the emigrant press, which arose due to his thought, have been and continue to be the most extensive Lithuanian public discussions on philosophical concepts. Some hints of Teilhard de Chardin written by Lithuanian authors appeared in periodicals from the late 1950s. Several Catholic priests as well as a doctor of chemistry and a doctor of mathematics gave lectures on Teilhard de Chardin’s life and thought in various Lithuanian diaspora gatherings, which attracted a lot of concern and discussion. From the second half of the 1960s the periodicals have been publishing an increasing number of articles on Teilhard de Chardin's works. According to our data, between 1950 and 1990, as many as 99 publications appeared in the diaspora that mentioned or analysed Teilhard de Chardin's ideas in more detail. Cultural journals informed about his newly released books and the new publications on his thought, the thoughts of his predecessors, supporters, and critics were reviewed. Most of the writings on Teilhard de Chardin have been by Catholic priests of those times, but in addition to them, a number of now almost forgotten secular thinkers have also published on his thought. Some of them ventured into the very debate on the relationship of Teilhard de Chardin's writings to Christianity. The most active debaters have been philosopher Antanas Maceina as well as psychologist and priest Antanas Paškus. Like the most prominent foreign supporters and critics of Teilhard de Chardin's ideas, our expatriate theoreticians have differed in their assessment of various aspects of his concept. There were different opinions on whether it could be considered a synthesis of science and religion. Many expatriate thinkers, not finding in this conception a traditional formulation of a divine creation out of nothing, accused the French theologian of pantheism, pan-spiritualism, positivism, agnosticism and even materialism. There were no experts in evolutionary theology or process theology among the Lithuanian expatriate thinkers, so Teilhard de Chardin's theory was interpreted in the context of the Catholic theology of the time. The only exception might be Paškus’ attempts to conceive of Teilhardian theory in terms of becoming and to recognise the divine creation as a continuous creation in the universe.