ABSTRACT
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin sits firmly among those who refuse any separation between theology and mysticism. Captivated by the wonders of prehistoric Egypt, he showed himself somewhat reserved towards the Coptic and Maronite Christians who then made up between ten and twenty per cent of the Egyptian population. It was at Ore Place, a few kilometres outside Hastings, that Teilhard, beginning in the second half of September 1908, was to complete his theological studies and prepare for his ordination. He now became a convinced evolutionist – a change of perspective encouraged by his reading of John Henry Newman and the Greek-speaking Eastern Fathers. Redemption, according to the Greek Fathers, marks not only the victory of Christ over sin, death and hell, but also the potential divinisation of humanity and the whole universe. The doctrine of original sin defined at the Council of Trent is wholly unknown to the Greek Fathers.
