Teilhard, like Thomas Aquinas before him, waged an incessant battle against dualism. Aquinas did it by moving from Plato and Augustine to Aristotle.
Teilhard, for example, challenges the meaning of “purity.” (Eckhart does the same.) Purity is not a debilitating separation from all created reality, but an impulse carrying one through all forms of created beauty. He rescues “purity” from the ascetic tradition of cutting oneself off from that which is material and attributes it to being an instinct or “impulse” that carries us “through all forms of beauty.”
Purity for Teilhard is expansive, not restricted. The divine beauty appears in many forms and we are to engage in a pursuit for beauty.
Matter is not to be eschewed—it is not the problem. “Till the very end of time matter will always remain young, exuberant, sparkling, newborn for those who are willing.” Indeed, Matter and Spirit: These were no longer two things but two states or two aspects of one and the same cosmic Stuff, according to whether it was looked at or carried further in the direction in which it is becoming itself or in the direction in which it is disintegrating. Matter is the Matrix of Spirit. Spirit is the higher state of Matter.
Teilhard rediscovered this ancient teaching, which preceded the patriarchal teaching (rooted in Plato) of what Augustine called the “war” between matter and spirit, body and soul. Like Eckhart who said, “the soul loves the body” and Aquinas who taught that soul is the “élan” in matter and that there exists a “wonderful communion of matter and spirit,” Teilhard celebrates matter.
Matter and Spirit are no longer “two things” but “two states or two aspects of one and the same cosmic Stuff.”
A marriage has occurred! Matter and Spirit feed one another. Incarnation is not to be ignored. “Matter is the Matrix of Spirit” and “Spirit is a higher state of Matter.”
Matter was not ultra materialized as I would at first have believed but was instead metamorphosed into Psyche. Spirit was by no means the enemy on the opposite pole of the Tangibility which it was seeking to attain: rather it was its very heart.
Teilhard came to realize this lesson from evolution–that Spirit was “the very heart” of matter which evolved and morphed into Psyche. Psyche was born of matter, and through all this evolving, Spirit was present at the core of things.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics, pp. 217f., 220f.
See also Fox, Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirit of Meister Eckhart.
Banner Image: “Ataraxia: A state of serene calmness.” by Patrick Verstappen on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
How important is it that a healthy mysticism get over the dualism of matter and spirit and that evolution as Teilhard understood it helps us to make that leap. A leap that Aquinas fought for before the advent of evolutionary thought.
Recommended Reading
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
As Matthew Fox notes, when an aging Albert Einstein was asked if he had any regrets, he replied, “I wish I had read more of the mystics earlier in my life.” The 365 writings in Christian Mystics represent a wide-ranging sampling of these readings for modern-day seekers of all faiths — or no faith. The visionaries quoted range from Julian of Norwich to Martin Luther King, Jr., from Thomas Merton to Dorothee Soelle and Thomas Berry.
“Our world is in crisis, and we need road maps that can ground us in wisdom, inspire us to action, and help us gather our talents in service of compassion and justice. This revolutionary book does just that. Matthew Fox takes some of the most profound spiritual teachings of the West and translates them into practical daily mediations. Study and practice these teachings. Take what’s in this book and teach it to the youth because the new generation cannot afford to suffer the spirit and ethical illiteracy of the past.” — Adam Bucko, spiritual activist and co-founder of the Reciprocity Foundation for Homeless Youth.
Passion for Creation: The Earth-Honoring Spirituality of Meister Eckhart
Matthew Fox’s comprehensive translation of Meister Eckhart’s sermons is a meeting of true prophets across centuries, resulting in a spirituality for the new millennium. The holiness of creation, the divine life in each person and the divine power of our creativity, our call to do justice and practice compassion–these are among Eckhart’s themes, brilliantly interpreted and explained for today’s reader.
“The most important book on mysticism in 500 years.” — Madonna Kolbenschlag, author of Kissing Sleeping Beauty Goodbye.
6 thoughts on “Teilhard and Aquinas Battling Dualism”
Thank you for realizing this, Matthew – “Spirit is a higher state of Matter.” We are awakening all the cells in our bodies to the reality that “we, as Joseph Campbell stated, are the consciousness of the earth.” We are many parts of the ONE realized consciousness.
Thank you for reminding me of Joseph Campbell.
I read his books many years ago. I was captivated by his vision of the dynamic engagement of spirit and matter being an up to date [evolutionary] carrier of sacred meanings.
Thank you for the messages within today’s DM; especially the redefining of the meaning of the word purity. To hear a revelation of the truth of purity, as being the sacred communion of Spirit and Matter and the beauty of this; liberates oneself from the illusions, delusions and entanglements that St. Augustine bound many souls with his religious concepts of original sin and the need to endlessly strive towards an unrealistic image of pure virginal PERFECTION.
The Original Blessing, that all Matter of the all and the everything of creation is incarnate and imbued with the living essence and presence of Spirit is a beautiful truth that awakens and sets all free… to experience and encounter for oneself a relationship of being and living in the reality of this sacred communion of relationship with… just as you are, whom you are and where you are… in any given moment!
My personal prayer of the Sacred Heart…
May I enter into sacred communion with all Matter and experience and encounter the beauty and blessings of the Divine Spirit imbued within the all and the everything of creation… awakening to see a reflection of my Soul/Self as being ONED WITH all that is, was and ever shall be!
Amen.
Very! My fellow subscribers to Matthew’s DM may also find very spiritually interesting and enjoyable this YouTube video by Daylesford Abbey subscription channel: “Cosmic Love: Teilhard and the Sacred Heart.”
From my perspective, any teaching that is unitive is benefit to the whole (and holy).
Aquinas embarked on a deep-dive into the heart and soul of the OFFICIAL Christian Theology: Neo-Platonic MYSTICAL, Unitive NON-Duality.
He used, as prime source for his early research, Boethius’s text and poetry, which was extremely popular all over Europe. Boethius (Roman, 480-524 A.D.) was a genius polymath: poet, music theorist, mathematician, translator of many Greek texts into Latin (including Aristotle), and Christian neo-Platonic theologian.
Aquinas eventually found additional early Christian Neo-Platonic Mystical theologians’ texts, and he continued trying to tease out and logically tie together all the nuanced, intuitive, non-dualistic intricacies he sensed were written about throughout all of them.
Boethius’ texts and poetry include the usual NON-dualistic and Unitive, neo-Platonic ideas, but his poetry also includes a fascinating little detail of the “flight upwards toward the One” segment of the Mystical Experience that’s startlingly similar to the one that I had. He wrote that it was characteristic of the Neo-platonic Mystical Union.
In other words, he not only seems to have been a Mystic himself personally, and known more mystical texts as comparative references, but he had the SAME, specifically-detailed, NEO-PLATONIC Mystical experience as I did.
AND he wrote beautifully. (I am SO jealous!).
He was a true poet with the soul of a mystic.