| To see throughout the history,our cosmology has changed radically,from the limited rational cosmology of the ancient Greek to the limitless eternal cosmology of the mechanistic,and to the organic cosmology of the modern evolution.With the changes of the cosmology,we have had deeper knowledge of the nature of the universe.We have realized that the universe is an indivisible whole,time-space dimension and spiritual phenomena should have added to the nature of the universe.Teilhard said that the universe as a whole is in the midst of two contradictory changes.One is evolution,it means that the whole universe is going toward the state of more ordered and more spiritual.The other is entropy,it means that the total entropy is increasing in the course of the evolution of the universe,the universe will be more disordered until the state of chaos and death.This make us realized that life is not only connected with the relation between being and non-being but also connected with the relation between order and chaos.Because the evolution and entropy exist in the universe,the threat and hope in front of us have expanded at the same time.With the influence of entropy,our threat is not the personal death any more but the death of the whole universe.With the function of evolution,our hope is no longer the salvation of the individual life and spirit but the whole universe entering into the divine milieu.It is a pity that science and religion have not adapt to the evolutionary universe,they have still hold the logic of the static cosmology.They can neither overcome the new threat nor embrace the new hope.From the scientific point of view,science relies too much on the analytical method,trying to explain the nature of the universe through a special phenomenon or a theoretical system in a special field.But this way is no doubt to eliminate the abundant phenomena from the universe for the consistency of the theory.Science has leaked the substance so that it can not reveal the nature of the universe.From the religious point of view,Traditional Christianity believes that God create the world through participation,although human souls can be saved by God,but through the way of separating human from the universe.Because God`s existence has no benefit for the future of the universe,God becomes a logical and conceptual being.Science and religion can see the universe in the analytical and scattered way,because they believe that the universe will not change in nature,they go after the great balance.But Teilhard has told us that the universe is experiencing the great movement.To deal with the problem of the evolutionary universe in thelogic of the static cosmology,it will never succeed.Teilhard has integrated the scientific theories and religious ideals to build the theory of the general evolution.He positively affirmed the transcendental value of life and spirit,he said that on the level of individual if life is not decisively beyond death,the meaning and value of life will be immediately drained away.On the overall level,this is even more true,life is beyond death in the sense of cosmology.The universe can only be understood if entropy is seen as a side effect of evolution.Teilhard pointed out that scientifically human is a special phenomenon in the universe.Only human beings have broken through the thinking stage alone thereby elevating the universe to a new level.Thus human is the hub and the leading edge of the evolution of the universe.The evolution of the universe still leaps forward again in human,elevating human beings from the existence of individuality to the existence of the noosphere.Noosphere developing to its limit must join in the point Ω beyond time and space,this is the end of the evolution.By entering time and space and transcending time and space,this is the complete process of the evolution of the universe.Religiously if the total energy of the universe activation just is enough to reach the point Ω,then the evolution of the universe will automatically dissolve due to its lack of energy.Therefore,it is necessary for God to transform the universe into the divine milieu at the end of its evolution,the value of all things will be finally realized.General evolution requires God as presupposition to complete its cosmology,so science and religion are not mutually exclusive or contradictory,rather to say that two different approaches to the same truth.According to general evolution,it can be said that Teilhard’s theology is eschatological.It is only at the end of evolution that God will reveal to man who he is.So God is no longer some transcendent entity but the extension of the universe,so the secular world and the transcendental realm are connected by the evolution of the universe,Teilhard’s concept of God is both internal and transcendental.Although human beings in the process of the evolution of the universe can not grasp God,they are held by God.By participating in God’s great work of creation,human beings will gradually learn more about God.Therefore,God is a super-personality and super-intelligent milieu for modern people,Teilhard called it the divine milieu.The divine milieu and the point Ω give the purpose and the hope for our lives and we should imitate Christ in order to move towards hope in practice.Chris had clearly expressed the universal evolutionary logic of ascending the world by entering it through the mystery of the Incarnation and the way of the Cross.Therefore,modernpeople should not only put into work and life,but also should promote our personalities from it.Only in this way can the center of personality which is finite become one with the center of Christ witch is “all in all”.On the one hand,although Teilhard’s thought is not mainstream in the Christian world,it is highly consistent with Chinese religious thought.Whether it is the philosophy of life,cosmology or even ontology,which is surprisingly consistent,his thought can build a bridge between eastern and western religions.On the other hand,in an evolving universe,what we need is a God who enters history,not just a God of logical concepts.What we need is full science,not just partial science.That’s why Teilhard can be called a pioneer in the attempt of transformation of modern theology.The first chapter mainly discusses the relationship between the evolution and the entropy of the universe caused by the transformation from static cosmology to evolutionary cosmology.Teilhard’s philosophy of religion is inseparable from his cosmology.Because of the profound changes in the cosmology,traditional religious concerns have either lost their validity or become new.These newly generated changes and problems need to be re-examined and clarified on the basis of the discussion on the evolutionary cosmology.As a result of the transformation,the death that once threatened the lives of individuals now extends to the universe as a whole,this is not just an increase in scope but also an increase in intensity,the universe as a whole is going to a total death because of entropy.Religion or science alone can never overcome this threat,science is too dependent on analytical methods to solve the problem of the general tendency of the universe from the basic units,religion teaches human beings to abandon the universe which covers up the positive meaning of God’s creation.Because entropy is a total change in the universe,and only another total change can overcome this threat,which is the evolution.However,the biological evolution ignores the spiritual nature of the universe and the special evolution can be reduced to a set of material order,which can not save the universe from the fate of death.Teilhard combines scientific and religious insights,suggesting that consciousness is the reality revealed by the complexity of matter and have proposed the law of “complexity-consciousness”.Science deals with the physical and chemical energy of the universe while religion deals with the spiritual energy activated by the universe,so that we can unify the universe at the phenomenal level.We live in a universe that is not only physical but also spiritual.When there is a danger of entropy on the physical level but there is an infinite possibility of ascension on the spiritual level.Therefore,we can reasonably turn entropy into a side effect of evolution,thusthoroughly affirm the value of life and spirit.The second chapter mainly discusses the core role of human beings in the evolution of the universe.In the logic of static cosmology,science and religion often produce distorted images of human beings,so that human beings are placed at the edge of the universe and their sanctity is always covered.In the logic of evolutionary cosmology,human beings are the axis and forefront of evolution.Therefore,the value of the universe can be enhanced without the participation and practice of human beings,thus human sanctity can be fully manifested.Science regards spirit as a side phenomenon and excludes human beings from the nature of the universe.Religion regards spirit as a super phenomenon and separates human beings from the universe.In either case,human beings are on the edge of the universe and both produce distorted images of human.Teilhard pointed out that on the basis of thoroughly adhere to the system theory and the theory of evolution,scientific analysis is just constantly towards the universe’s most basic unit,but when it has reached a certain level,it turned to abandon this level to a new and deeper level,so as to turn a blind eye to the organic value of the universe as a whole.God has not only the creation of the universe but also the entry into the universe to show his love.We can say that God not only created the universe but also ascended it through all things.In this way,human is no longer an alien in the universe but the axis and front line of the evolution and his value is manifested by participation in God’s creation project.For human beings,the evolution of the universe is still at work.In the future,human beings will move from self-existence to the overall existence of the noosphere and noosphere will reach beyond time and space dimension of the super-personal and super-intelligence point Ω.The same process is also the journey of human beings into the kingdom of God.Due to the merits of the evolution,human beings will finally bid farewell to entropy and death completely.The third chapter mainly discusses the necessity of the existence of God in the evolving universe and the enlightenment of the new concept of God to human beings.In Teilhard’s general evolution,the existence of God is indispensable as a complement to cosmology,so that science and religion are functionally complementary.Rather to say that they are different approaches to the same truth.Teilhard pointed out that,God is the extension of the universe.Only at the end of the evolution the existence of God himself can be fully revealed.Therefore,Teihard’s concept of God is both inner transcendence and eschatological.For modern people in the process of evolution,God can no longer be imagined as something beyond the universe but rather as asuper-personal and super-intelligence milieu which completely envelop us,Teilhard called it the divine milieu.In order to understand God,Teilhard sublated the traditional methods of form and matter and adopted the methods of structure and energy which toward the future and the evolution.Teilhard realized that the evolution of the universe is the process of the activation of spiritual energy and the energy of love,with which the universe is ascending towards the kingdom of God,which also shows that the secular world is connected with the transcendental realm.The point Ωand the divine milieu have given people with lofty ideals and the Christ with the mystery of Incarnation and the path of the Cross is able to guide the practice of human beings.Christ revealed the truth of salvation to us by entering the universe and ascending it,human beings should also actively participate in the great project of building the world and combine with others to improve their personality,this is how the universe as a whole becomes one with the center of Christ as “all in all”.The fourth chapter mainly discusses the consistency between Teilhard’s religious thought and Chinese religious thought which builds a bridge for the communication between eastern and western religions.This paper makes a comparison between the thoughts of Fang dongmei and Tang junyi and those of Teilhard,finds that they are highly compatible in philosophy of life,cosmology and ontology.Fang dongmei stressed that human beings need to participate in the life of the universe as a whole.So that they can naturally bring the universe into the religious paradise of truth,goodness and beauty.Tang junyi pointed out that human beings need to keep advancing towards the essence of mind.So as to transform the suffering,evil and mistakes of the universe into truth,goodness and joy.Their thoughts can be summed up the theory of Teilhard that “elevating the center of the individual” corresponds to the “transcendental center” and “moving the center of the individual” into the“transcendental center” to achieve the purpose of the evolution of the universe.Only through the evolution of the universe as a whole can individuals’ existence be freely connected to the past and present,to the inside and outside,to the transcendent and experience,to the subject and the object. |
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