Philosophy of Religion

Hymn of the Universe

♡+

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

1961

Hymn of the Universe collects Teilhard de Chardin's most lyrical and mystical writings: essays, meditations, and hymns that express his vision of the cosmos as suffused with divine presence. The centrepiece is "The Mass on the World," a meditation written in the Ordos Desert in 1923 when Teilhard had no bread or wine for the Eucharist — he offered instead the whole of creation and the whole of the day's work as his sacrifice. Other texts include "The Spiritual Power of Matter," "Christ in the World of Matter," and shorter meditations on the fire and light that Teilhard sees pervading all things. The book is less argumentative than The Phenomenon of Man and more devotional — Teilhard at his most unguarded, revealing the mystical experience of immanent divine fire in matter that drove his entire intellectual project.