With dedicated journals, conferences, organizations, and a growing number of scholars, the field of religion and science is now robust. Given the importance of science and the exponential impact of applied science, it is fitting that scholars of religion are active participants in this dialogue. From last century, Alfred North Whitehead and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin stand tall with a treasure trove of ideas profitable for enriching the story of religion and science.

The 15 essays comprising the core of this collection emerge from a 2023 joint conference on Whitehead and Teilhard, sponsored by the Center for Process Studies and the Center for Christogenesis and in collaboration with the Connelly Chair of Villanova University. The chapters are organized into three parts: “Philosophical and Theological Concrescence,” “Scientific and Religious Transition,” and “Possibilities and Perils of the Future.” Some of the more noted authors include Godehard Brüntrup, Andrew M. Davis, Daniel A. Dombrowski, Kathleen Duffy, John F. Haught, Catherine Keller, and Donald Wayne Viney. The editors provide an insightful introduction, and the appendix offers valuable archival material, including Ian Barbour’s seminal 1969 essay “Teilhard’s Process Metaphysics” and a 1951 interview of Teilhard by Marcel Brion, “Meeting with Father Teilhard de Chardin.”

Most chapters engage both Whitehead and Teilhard, exploring the philosophical and theological convergences and divergences in their thought. Among their convergences: both see God as transcendent and immanent, have been interpreted as holding panentheistic visions, and are underappreciated in current discussions of extraterrestrial life. Both advocate a relational metaphysics that restores the theological primacy of love, offer prescriptions for advancing cultural evolution, and address the Western bifurcation of nature and its implications for the global climate crisis. The differences authors find are usually in the particularities of how Whitehead and Teilhard formulate their visions. While these themes are not entirely new, the collection’s value lies in the depth and nuance with which contributors analyze them.

One of the more interesting chapters is Godehard Brüntrup’s “Was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin a Panpsychist?” In recent years, panpsychism has seen a resurgence of interest, especially by philosophers and scientists interested in explaining consciousness without relying on strict physicalism or dualism. While consciousness is at the center of the interest in panpsychism, the notion has implications for environmental ethics, theological anthropology, and more. Brüntrup offers a rigorous, at times technical, discussion of panpsychism and situates Teilhard firmly within this context. He concludes, citing numerous quotations from Teilhard’s writings, that “There can be no doubt that Teilhard de Chardin was one of the most influential representatives of panpsychism in the twentieth century.” Although the chapter focuses on Teilhard, Brüntrup also notes Whitehead’s “astoundingly similar” views and his role as an ally in overcoming the bifurcation of nature.

Kathleen Duffy’s “Teilhard’s Last Will and Testament” offers an accessible summary and commentary on “The Christic,” completed in 1955 and his final statement on the transformative divine love guiding all creation to fulfillment. As Duffy mystically put it in the final sentence of her essay, “… engulfed in the spiritual energy released in the conjunction of a personal God with an amorized universe, the cosmos will finally burst into flames.”

My main critique of the book is that it does not include a chapter on transhumanism, the movement advocating aggressive use of AI and other technologies to radically enhance humans. Two chapters address exotheology and space exploration, certainly worthy topics. At least as important, and arguably urgent, are the technologies (e.g., genetic engineering, tissue engineering, robotics) that may wonderfully benefit or destroy (or something in between) humanity. Teilhard has been called a “prototypical transhumanist,” and Whitehead’s process thought has been employed to engage with transhumanist themes.

Few books manage to serve both specialists and informed lay readers; while not every chapter achieves this balance, overall, the collection offers a rewarding experience for both audiences.