When Hallel Communications
agreed in 1977 to bring out our series of cassette tapes, they
did so because the speakers were not only individuals concerned
with Teilhard's thought but also officers of an organization
existing at a certain period of time with a stated purpose. This
book is a short account of that organization and some of the
people who have been part of it. There is, of course, a larger
story that is not attempted here: the influence of Teilhard's
thought on secular and religious ideas as well as on private
lives in the sixties and seventies of this century. This
story remains to be written.
My sources for this history
are the correspondence files of the American Teilhard Association,
the Minutes of Board Meetings, the Newsletters and archives,
the 1964 Fordham conference Proceedings, some notes sent
to me by Beatrice Bruteau, Ewert Cousins' taped recollections
of his early years at Fordham, a long talk with Robert Francoeur
one morning this past summer when I visited him on Cape Cod,
and my own long experience with the Association.
The American Teilhard
Association is now in its eleventh year. It believes that Teilhard's
vision will play an important role in shaping the new world-view
that is emerging in the last decades of this century, and in
its publications and programs it will continue to relate Teilhard's
thought to that evolving world.
Winifred McCulloch
New York City
October, 1978
