Abstract
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit-scientist- philosopher-theologian, begins his preface to The|Phenomenon of Man:|"If this book is to be properly understood, it must be read . . . purely and simply as a scientific treatise . . . This book deals with man solely as a phenomenon; but it also deals with the whole phenomenon of man."|After a preliminary chapter on "The Stuff of the Universe," Teilhard de Chardin devotes his second chapter to "The Within of Things." "The whole phenomenon of man" demands a|"kind of phenomenology or generalized physic in which the internal aspect of things as well as the external aspect of the world will be taken into account. Otherwise . . . it is impossible to cover the totality of the cosmic phenomenon by one coherent explanation such as science must try to construct."|Just as Teilhard de Chardin, Christian and scientist, spent his life in the study of the whole man, so Flannery O'Connor, Catholic-Southern-writer, insisted that the work of the fiction writer who is also a Catholic is the whole man. As a fiction writer he must|"render the highest possible justice to the created universe. This is the way the fiction writer works for God -- by making us see God's creation; and not just the beautiful or pretty things."