Another personal friend of Teilhard de Chardin left us on Christmas Eve, according to a notice from Carleton College: https://apps.carleton.edu/farewells/?story_id=1081774. Ian Barbour, a noted theologian-scientist, was the son of George Barbour, a geology associate and close personal friend of Teilhard in China. George was the man behind the movie camera which captured Teilhard’s zest for life in China, and he wrote a book about Teilhard, In the Field with Teilhard de Chardin. His son Ian knew Teilhard well. “[Ian] Barbour has long been an admirer of Teilhard though not an uncritical one. His esteem is perhaps as much for the person of Teilhard as for the latter’s bold attempts to connect evolution and religious thought,” wrote theologian and Teilhard scholar John Haught. (See a reflection on Barbour by Haught in the next post.)
Ian was a towering presence in the field of science and religion, winner of the Templeton Prize in 1999. He will be sorely missed.
