Teilhard at Fordham: 1963–1964

Abstract

It would be naïve to think that interest in and study of Teilhard de Chardin began at Fordham only this past year. Some years ago, in fact, Fr. J. Franklin Ewing, S. J., founded a Teilhard Circle to stimulate critical study of the Jesuit paleontologist's thought, chiefly from the anthropological angle; that effort, for a number of reasons, proved to be short-lived. Several other Fordham professors,—Dr. Louis Marks in Biology and Fr. Joseph Donceel S.J. in Philosophy—have made Teilhard the object of consideration in certain of their regular courses. But 1963 did, nonetheless, witness a coincidental awakening of Teilhardian study on a wider scale than heretofore. First, Fr. Maurits Huybens, S.J., Belgian editor of the International Philosophical Quarterly and at that time residing at Fordham, proposed to give a series of six public lectures introductory to Teilhard's thought. Second, the suggestion was made quite independently, and received an interested response from faculty members of various departments, that Teilhard's Phenomenon of Man might provide a fruitful focus for an inter-disciplinary seminar, something whose desirability had been felt for some time.