Saintly Scientist
THESE letters 'from a soldier-priest' 1914-19 are all written to Father Teilhard's cousin Marguerite. In them. the future author of The Phenomenon of Man, the archaeologist and polymath who scandalised his Order for his speculative views on theology and who has been widely claimed to be amongst the outstanding thinkers of the century, shows himself to' have been a brave, humble, resourceful corporal stretchen.bearer, several times decorated.
There is nothing remote or pi about these letters; pietism has never been a Jesuit failing. What is more remarkable is the precision with which the young priest succeeded in his intention— which was to immerse himself as fully as pos- sible in the war, so that he could share the whole appalling experience with his compatriots, while ' at the same time preserving and developing his interior life, centred on the Mass which he said daily, except when under attack or on forced marches, carrying the sacred Elements in a little Gladstone bag.
Both spiritually and scientifically these must have been crucial years for him, despite (perhaps because of) the absence of clerical companions. In them his simple pantheistic admiration for nature as God's creation, almost as God, starts to become refined and integrated into a more complicated religio- scientific structure developed in his later books. But while there will be those who doubt whether his speculative achievement was all that his ad- mirers claimed for him (there is something essentially Gallic about his familiarity with uni- versals, his serious intentness, his bland treatment of empirical verification), there can be no with- holding of admiration for the spiritual and pastoral dedication so quietly and often mov- ingly shown in these pages. This is the rare courage and love of the saint.
ROBIN DENNISTON
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