Teilhard de Chardin Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was born in Auvergne, in France. At age 10, he developed an interest in geology and mineralogy while a boarder at a Jesuit school. He joined the Jesuit Order at the age of eighteen and taught physics and chemistry at the Jesuit College in Cairo and at Hastings. He was ordained a priest in 1912 and returned to Paris. He studied at the Institute of Human Paleontology at the Museum of Natural History in Paris and acquired his life long devotion to the study of the evolution of man. He took his doctorate in 1922 at the Sorbonne. In 1923 he left France on a paleontological expedition to China and stayed there, with brief journeys to France and other countries, until 1946. In 1946, returning to France, he was made a member of the Legion of Honor for his contributions to science. In 1951 he moved to New York, where he spent the last four years of his life. His many writings include The Phenomenon of Man, Le Milieu Divin (a title that is hard to do justice in English - perhaps "In the Context of God"), and collections of essays. His writings did not win the immediate approval of the Church, and after several disagreements, he was forbidden to publish further during his lifetime. There has always been a following for his teachings, unfortunately by some people who have a misguided pantheistic understanding of them. Recently, his ideas have become more generally accepted and seen as prophetic. There are now Teilhard de Chardin associations, dedicated to studying his works, in several countries: Britain - http://www.teilhard.org.uk France - http://www.teilhard.org Holland - http://home.worldonline.nl/~sttdc/indexeng.htm USA - http://www.teilharddechardin.org Do a search on Google for other national associations or for updated web addresses. The photograph above of Teilhard is from the book "Le Milieu Divin", ©1960, William Collins and Sons & Co. Ltd., London, and Harper & Brothers, New York - an excellent translation by Bernard Wall.