The Jesuit and the Skull [Paperback]

Amir Aczel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 4, 2008

From the New York Times bestselling author of Fermat?s Last Theorem, ?an extraordinary story?( Philadelphia Inquirer) of discovery, evolution, science, and faith.

In 1929, French Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a part of a group of scientists that uncovered a skull that became known as Peking Man, a key evolutionary link that left Teilhard torn between science and his ancient faith, and would leave him ostracized by his beloved Catholic Church. His struggle is at the heart of The Jesuit and the Skull, which takes readers across continents and cultures in a fascinating exploration of one of the twentieth century?s most important discoveries, and one of the world?s most provocative pieces of evidence in the roiling debate between creationism and evolution.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Science popularizer Aczel (Fermat's Last Theorem) offers an uninspired and all-too-brief look at a remarkable subject. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1956) succeeded in melding his life as a Jesuit priest and as a scientist at a time when the Catholic Church denied that such a thing was either possible or desirable. Teilhard's superiors prohibited him from publishing almost everything he wrote during his lifetime and forced him into exile from his native France. Published after his death, his works became classic examples of integrating religion and science. But Aczel discusses precious little of Teilhard's philosophy and dismisses controversies with nary a thought. Stephen Jay Gould's accusation that Teilhard was involved in the infamous Piltdown Man hoax is limited to eight words: Teilhard was without doubt innocent in this matter. Aczel is equally brief when addressing the skull of Peking Man, a crucial 1929 discovery by an archeological team that loosely included Teilhard. The Peking Man fossils disappeared in 1941, during the Japanese occupation of China, and Aczel provides no new thoughts on what might have become of the remains. Despite their evident relevance to current debates, Teilhard, Peking Man, human evolution and the relationship between religion and science remain shadows without any substance. Illus. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Earlier research into mathematical mysticism (The Mystery of the Aleph, 2000; Descartes's Secret Notebook, 2005) well qualifies Aczel for interpreting the life of Teilhard de Chardin, a cleric-scientist who defied the boundaries of both rational science and scriptural orthodoxy. Readers will marvel at how loyal Teilhard remained to a church that repeatedly disciplined him for heresy in his evolutionary explanation of human origins. It was, ironically, by exiling Teilhard from his beloved France that church authorities put him in China, where in 1929 he shared in the discovery of the famous Peking Man fossils. Aczel details Teilhard's role in that discovery, highlighting his involvement with Lucile Swan, an American artist commissioned to sculpt the ancient hominid. That relationship finally foundered when Teilhard refused to break vows of celibacy sanctified by a church that repaid his fidelity with continued hostility. Nonetheless, Aczel discerns an abiding legacy in the words and writings of a thinker who suffered much for his synthesis of pioneering science and iconoclastic faith. Christensen, Bryce --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade; Reprint edition (November 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594483353
• ISBN-13: 978-1594483356
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,132,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Amir D. Aczel, Ph.D., is the author of 17 books on mathematics and science, some of which have been international bestsellers. Aczel has taught mathematics, statistics, and history of science at various universities, and was a visiting scholar at Harvard in 2005-2007. In 2004, Aczel was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is also the recipient of several teaching awards, and a grant from the American Institute of Physics to support the writing of two of his books. Aczel is currently a research fellow in the history of science at Boston University. The photo shows Amir D. Aczel inside the CMS detector of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the international laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, while there to research his new book, "Present at the Creation: The Story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider"--which is about the search for the mysterious Higgs boson, the so-called "God particle," dark matter, dark energy, the mystery of antimatter, Supersymmetry, and hidden dimensions of spacetime.
See Amir D. Aczel's webpage: http://amirdaczel.com
Video on CERN and the Large Hadron Collider: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ncx8TE2JMo

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good on the Skull, Weak on the Jesuit, November 8, 2007

By 

Observer "Bernie" (Boston, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jesuit and the Skull: Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man (Hardcover)

Smoothly and informatively written, Amir Aczel traces the career of Teilhard de Chardin both as an academic and as a Jesuit priest. His difficulties with the Church are described but primarily at a superficial level. It is a major puzzle as to why Teilhard remained a Jesuit priest given his philosophy, the way the Church mistreated him and his complex relationships with Lucile Swan. Nor do we really get an insight into how Teilhard could reconcile his philosophy with the basic tenets of the Catholic Church, his practices as a priest and his vows of celibacy. Aczel recognizes these conundrums but he and we do not get close to any answers. Aczel spends a lot of time laying out Teilhard's friendship with Lucile, but little time detailing either Teilhard's specific scientific contributions or his actual philosophy beyond the omega point.
The book revived my interest in Teilhard but without providing much by way of an explanation of this complex and talented scientist, priest and man.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Teihard de Chardin in the right place at the right time, December 22, 2007

By 

Alex Tang "the reader" (Malaysia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jesuit and the Skull: Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man (Hardcover)

I have always been fascinated by Teihard de Chardin. Pere Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a Jesuit priest, geologist, palaeontologist, theologian, scholar and Christian mystic. This book is about him and the circumstances surrounding his discovery of the Peking man.

Teihard de Chardin fascinates me because he tried very hard to reconcile science and religion. He felt a calling to the Church and joined the Jesuits or Society of Jesus at a very young age. In spite of his all conflicts and heartache with the Jesuits, he never did consider leaving the order. During his training as a priest, he spent 4 years as a stretcher bearer during the First World War. The horrors and inhumanity of war had a profound effect on him. He was ordained a Jesuit. Aside from a theological education, he also studied the science of geology and palaeontology. He received his PhD when he was 45 years old.

Unlike many Christians, Teihard de Chardin did not find any conflicts between his belief in his Christian faith and science. He sees a convergence of both. His main thesis is that God is a God of change and all creation is in a constant flux of change until it all reaches a point of union with the One which he called the Omega Point. This means that human beings are also changing as we evolve to a higher level of consciousness. What this also means is that he embrace the theory of evolution as a theory of change. Not only do animals change or evolve but the earth itself evolves. This brings him to consider these changes as the evolution of the Noosphere.

His acceptance and teaching of the theory of evolution came to the attention of the Jesuits and the Vatican. Teihard de Chardin was commanded to stop his teaching. However he was such an established scientist that the Church decided to send him as far away from civilisation as possible. They decided to send him to China! It is the greatest of irony that in China, Teihard de Chardin discovered the remains of the Peking man. The Peking man is considered scientific proof that human beings have evolved from earlier hominids. All these support evolution and are against creationism. Thus in sending him away to China, Teihard de Chardin was sent to a place to discover something the Church has wanted to avoid.

Teihard de Chardin was censored by his order and not allowed to lecture and publish. Most of his books and writings are published after his death.

An interesting and informative introduction to Teihard de Chardin, evolution and the Peking man.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The resurrection of two fossils, August 11, 2008

By 

Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jesuit and the Skull: Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man (Hardcover)

In his very readable The Jesuit and the Skull, Amir Aczel offers a rather sweeping account of the early and mid-twentieth century search for the "missing link," focusing in particular on the contributions of the French cleric and scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In the process he discusses the history of paleoanthropology, the Scopes trial, disagreements in the scientific community over the significance of the Java Man and Peking Man fossils, and the Galileo-like struggle between de Chardin and Church authorities.

The two undisputed stars of Aczel's account are de Chardin and Peking Man. In a curious manner, both suffered similar fates and similar resurrections. Both were "silenced," buried under layers of nearly impenetrable sediment, literally in Peking Man's case and metaphorically in de Chardin's when he was silenced and exiled by the Church. But both also came to light: Peking Man in 1929 when he was discovered in a cave near Beijing, and de Chardin posthumously with the publication of the thousands of pages he wrote but couldn't publish during his lifetime.

Aczel's account of this chapter in the tussle between religion and science is certainly timely, and it provides a good overview of the topic. I wish, though, that he'd taken more care to explain de Chardin's unique understanding of the convergence of Christian faith and evolutionary theory. This would've made the Church's opposition more clear. Aczel focuses especially on an early essay of de Chardin's that calls the original sin doctrine into question. But this is only the tip of the iceberg of what ecclesial authorities saw as problematic in his position. Much of the book's details about the relationship between Lucile Swan and de Chardin could've been omitted to make room for this kind of discussion.

Still, well worth reading. Three and a half stars.