Pierre Teilhard de Chardin approached the book of Genesis with his goal of reconciling his Christian faith with his commitment to science.
His reading of the Bible is therefore done with the public in mind, who, like him, are proud of scientific discoveries, and read at the first degree, with a scientific mindset, being, therefore, little inclined to symbolic reading. Now, precisely, Genesis, when it deals with the beginning of creation, has a strong symbolic character. He will therefore go through these successive chapters by challenging a literalist reading, by translating each character, each place, each action, into a symbolic reading, significant of his great perspectives.
The new scenario that he presents, following his reading, will therefore not only be faithful to a symbolic meaning of the text, but will also be compatible with a scientific understanding of the world. Sacred Scripture will be respected for everything that is not scientific, but will give, in its actualization, a scientifically credible image of the unspeakable, of the beyond.
This reinterpretation of Genesis, which will touch on the Creation of the World, the Earthly Paradise, Adam and Eve, and the creation of the human soul, will be followed by a summary of his vision of Original Sin and the meaning of the Cross, with the same spirit.
He is therefore credited with the Christian global vision of the updated interpretation of certain critical parts of the Holy Scripture, which he considers compatible with the Science of his time, thus regenerating the motivation of Christians who believe in Science and aspire to an “intelligent and intelligible” faith in their time.
It must be said that some of these notions were already established and known, but not widely spread among the Christian people:
1°) : The divine necessity of the creation of the Universe, the world and man, within the framework of Evolution,
2°) The creation of the human by evolution of the animal species, in several terrestrial species, by the crossing of thresholds gradually,
3°) The gift of the human soul by God, as the individual grows, and not from conception,
4°) The integration of physical death in the process of all the living, the death of the soul being, for its part, linked to the behavior of each one,
5°) The Original Sin being recognized, but the Original Sin not being automatically transmitted from generation to generation, this approach of reading the Christian religion as compatible with Science, is not, even today, to everyone’s taste, even among Christians. This is a reason to take a closer look.
