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choice until the final moment’, which in turn leads to a historical process that
is free both to realise the Omega and reject it. As a word of criticism, Men
remarks that the ‘line of evil and repression’ is left in the shadow of the
‘positive’ by Teilhard.
Before introducing further criticism, Men draws attention to Teilhard’s
protestations at the beginning of The Phenomenon of Man that his key concern is
not theology, but rather that which can be investigated by the mind as a
‘phenomenon’. Although in this way Teilhard intentionally limited the sphere
of discussion, Men sees these limitations and the theological issues they raise
as problematic in the following ways.
Firstly Teilhard ‘is prepared to see in this creative energy the immanence
of God Himself in matter. It seems that the boundary between divine and
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created energies disappears’. In any case, the relationship between these two
energies requires theological explanation that is not given. Men sees a second
problem in the concept of ‘radial energy’, which is responsible for the internal
psychic development of all three stages – the evolution of matter, the
biosphere and the noosphere. For Men, these three stages have significant,
qualitative differences. Where Teilhard sees the spiritual aspect of
development/complexification in terms of the ‘inner’ qualities of the universe,
Men would rather see an external creative influence/movement on material.
Such a movement would account more convincingly for these ‘qualitative’
differences. Although Teilhard sees a difference between humans and animals,
termed ‘a radial jump to infinity’, Men is not satisfied by the inference that
Teilhard is taking the spiritual origin of humans from a biological ‘inner’
psychology.
To summarise, Men sees correspondence between Teilhard’s vision of
creation and the Orthodox view of creation as ‘theophany’. To merge with God
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is seen as ‘our long-desired goal. It is the goal of the whole world’. Men and
Teilhard agree that this should happen in a way that preserves individual
personality. Men, however, remarks that the issue of sin is largely absent from
Teilhard’s writings. The problem of evil is therefore an area of significant

25 Men, Origins of Religion, Appendix 10. В Поисках Пути, Истины и Жизни – Том 1. Истоки
Религии. [Издательство "Слово". Москва. 1991 г.] (In search of the Way, the Truth and the Life –
Book 1: Origins of Religion. Publishing House 'Word'. Moscow. 1991.) – can be found at
http://www.alexandermen.ru/pan.html
26 Men, Origins of Religion, Appendix 10
27 Correspondence with Rentlinger, published in Ilyushenko, Fr. Aleksandr Men, p579

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