Total in God - total in oneself - The Teilhardian vision of unification of the world and God and its roots in European philosophical-theological tradition

Scientific Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Philosophy - General Essays Eras course: International Teilhard Asia Conference 2006 Manila Philippinen August 200 language: English abstract: The aim of the present article is to situate the Teilhardian vision of unification of all in Christ (Eph 110) - together with the resulting panentheistic evolutionary and mystical premises within the European philosophical-theological tradition which I would like to call the unifying tradition. In the first part of the article I shall try to prove that the Teilhardian conception of the evolutionary development of all beings up to the point of Omega-Christ generally understood as a departure from multitude (analysis) towards unity (synthesis) is a simple consequence of the philosophical-theological thought current that began with Parmenides manifested itself in the thought of Platon in Middle Platonism in the conceptions of Plotinus Nicholas of Cusa Spinoza Leibniz and in german idealism. The second part of the article presents the analogy between Teilhard de Chardin's Christocentric and eschatological vision of evolution and the Christian conceptions of the emergence and return of all beings from and to God. These conceptions were present in varying scope and degree in the thought of the Greek Church Fathers (Clement of Alexandria Origen Cappadocian Fathers) and later Christian authors (Pseudo-Dionysus Areopagite Maximus Confessor Eriugena). The part's final section will discuss whether Teilhard's view on the animation or spiritualization of matter which implies a lack of difference between 'spirit' and 'body' represents a novelty in Christian thought or whether this view can be inscribed into the current of an orthodox 'unifying' theory. The third part of the article shall consider the degree to which European conceptions of multitude in unity panentheistic visions of Christian neo-Platonism and the conception of gradual spiritualization of eve