“In the narrow, partitioned and static Cosmos wherein our fathers believed themselves to dwell, Christ was “lived” and loved by His followers, as He is today, as the Being on whom all things depend and in whom the Universe finds its “consistence.” But this Christological function was not easily defended on rational grounds, at least if the attempt was made to interpret it in a full, organic sense. Accordingly Christian thinking did not especially seek to incorporate it in any precise cosmic order. At that time the Kingship of Christ could be readily expressed in terms of juridical ascendancy; or else it was sufficient that He should prevail in the nonexperimental, extracosmic sphere of the supernatural. Theology, in short, did not seem to realize that every kind of Universe might not be “compossible” with the idea of an Incarnation. But with the concept of Space-Time, as we have defined it, there comes into effect a harmonious and fruitful conjunction between the two spheres of rational experience and of faith. In a Universe of “Conical” structure Christ has a place (the apex!) ready for Him to fill, when His Spirit can radiate through all the centuries and all beings; and because of the genetic links running through all the levels of Time and Space between the elements of a convergent world, the Christ-influence, far from being restricted to the mysterious zones of “grace,” spreads and penetrates throughout the entire mass of Nature in movement. In such a world Christ cannot sanctify the Spirit without (as the Greek Fathers intuitively perceived) uplifting and saving the totality of Matter. Christ becomes truly universal to the full extent of Christian needs, and in conformity with the deepest aspirations of our age the Cross becomes the Symbol, the Way, the very Act of progress.”

– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man, pp. 86-87

You can see Part I of this quote here.  Part III (Primacy of Charity) will be next week.