« Les débats récents autour du créationnisme ont montré que la « science » et la « religion » n’étaient pas encore réconciliées. Il n’est pas toujours facile d’accorder le thème scientifique de l’évolution et le thème théologique de la création. Les hommes d’Église (séminaristes, prêtres) peuvent être tentés par une position de « séparation », dans laquelle la foi chrétienne n’aurait rien à dire à la science contemporaine. Le paléontologue jésuite Pierre Teilhard de Chardin a tenté de montrer que la confession au Dieu créateur était convergente avec la reconnaissance d’une vision évolutive du cosmos. Il peut servir de guide pour aider à penser ce difficile sujet. »
The recent debates about creationism showed that “science” and “religion” are not yet quite reconciled. We must admit that it is difficult to harmonize the scientific issue of evolution and the theological issue of creation. Church people (seminarians and priests) could be tempted to “separate” both issues, which means that the Christian faith has nothing to do with contemporary science. The Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin has attempted to show that confessing a Creator God was attuned with being at ease with the vision of an evolving cosmos. He could serve as a good guide in helping us thinking this difficult topic.
François Euvé
Centre Sèvres, Paris
Biography
François Euvé, a physicist and theologian and a Jesuit priest, holds the Tielhard de Chardin Chair and until recently was Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Facultés Jesuites de Paris (Centre Sèvres). He is Editor-in-Chief of the review Etudes and belongs to the editorial committee of the theological publication Recherches de Science Religieuse.
In an interview at Georgetown University where he was a Visiting Professor in the Fall, 2012, Professor Euvé revealed an interest in Russian culture, literature and history. The interview further surfaced the fact that he was the first Jesuit superior appointed in Moscow since the 17th Century. Among his other interests, primus inter pares, are the physical sciences, but there also exists an appreciation, predictably, for French cuisine.
Professor Euvé is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan, with a degree in physics. He continued theological training not only to reflect on his own faith but intially to be able to respond intelligently to colleagues who raised questions about the incompatibility of serious scientific research for a believing Christian. Philosophical and theological studies became a means of better perceiving and understanding the scientific process itself since the great scientists themselves often raised the fundamental questions in their research. After becoming a Jesuit, he received a doctorate in theology, specifically on the issue of creating and integrating a reflection on science with theology. Over the years, his work has focused on what a scientific perspective brings to theology and also what a Christian approach could offer the work of science.
François Euvé is credited with clarifying the response of the theological and scientific communities to the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. He recognizes that a large part of Teilhard’s texts are disconcerting for minds rigorously formed in the scientific approach, especially with regard to the Phenomenon of Man that Teilhard himself asked not be read as a theological essay but solely as a scientific study. That disclaimer might be read as a way to reach a wider audience or as a shield by Teilhard to protect himself against those Church authorities who had forbidden Teilhard to publish theological or philosophical texts.
For full c.v.: http://www.centresevres.com/v2/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Bibliograhie_complete_Francois_euve.pdf
http://www.croire.com/Definitions/Mots-de-la-foi/Theologie/Francois-Euve-s.j.-Science-et-foi