Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to the following academic presentation

 

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

A Remembrance

 

Prof. Dr. Dr. H. James Birx

Emeritus Professor, Canisius University USA

70th Anniversary Academic Presentation

Wednesday 12 February 2025, 17:00h CET

ECPD Headquarters, Terazije 41 Belgrade

 

INVITATION LETTER

 

Please find below the Zoom link as well as, an abstract pertaining to the content of the presentation, and Prof. Dr. Dr. H. James Birx’s short biography.

 

Topic: ECPD UPEACE: Special Academic Presentation by Prof. Dr. Dr. H. James Birx

Time: Feb 12, 2025 05:00 PM Belgrade, Bratislava, Ljubljana

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/96160389562?pwd=gEV7WjIGTx77x9hrH8O4I7guL2DZz3.1

Meeting ID: 961 6038 9562

Passcode: 992045

 

Abstract:

This presentation is an insightful survey of the extraordinary life and provocative thought of the famous but controversial scientist and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955). The focus is on both his significant geo-paleontological research at the famous fossil site of Peking Man at Zhoukoudian in China, and his bold ideas on evolution offered in his unique book The Phenomenon of Man (1938-1940). Teilhard was especially influenced by the writings of vitalist Henri Bergson, not by those of materialist Charles Darwin. As a process philosopher attempting to embrace both science and theology, he gave a comprehensive vision of our evolving species that challenged the basic traditional religious beliefs concerning the place of humankind within this dynamic universe. Essentially, Teilhard's worldview is grounded in a planetary, closed and mystical interpretation of human existence. His controversial beliefs had resulted in his having to endure a lifelong conflict with the superiors of the Roman Catholic Church; his major essays and three books were not allowed publication during his lifetime. Even today, Teilhard's unorthodox worldview is still a challenge to, and largely dismissed by, science and philosophy and theology.

 

Biography:

H. James Birx, Ph.D., D.Sc., received his doctorate degree with distinction in philosophy under Marvin Farber from the SUNY-University at Buffalo and is a permanent distinguished professor in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade. He has been an invited visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge and twice at Harvard University. His over 500 academic publications include Human Evolution, Interpreting Evolution, and the award-winning book Theories of Evolution, as well as both editing and contributing entries to the 2-volume 21st Century Anthropology, the 3-volume Encyclopedia of Time, and the award-winning 5-volume Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Birx's evolution research has taken him twice to the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, USA, and the Koobi Fora site in Kenya, Africa. He is a Full Professor at the ECPD University for Peace established by the United Nations. His  invited university lectures have taken him worldwide, from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico to Ireland, Germany, Poland and Russia. Birx is an interviewee on Frank Frost's 2-hour special PBS international documentary Teilhard: Visionary Scientist (2024-2026). In June 2025, with his art editor Branko Milicevic, he will give an invited PowerPoint presentation on Education & Evolution for the IAFOR Paris-Sorbonne University PCE #4.

 

We kindly ask you to confirm the receipt of this email and your attendance.

 

Kind regards,

Asst. Prof Dr. Milica Golubović Tasevska

Coordinator

ECPD International Postgraduate Studies

ECPD Headquarters

Terazije 41

11000 Belgrade

Phone: +381 11 3246 041 … 045

Fax: +381 11 3240 673

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www.ecpd.org.rs