Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1949-1955) : the advent of the "Ultra-human" and the transition toward the "New Anthropology" and "Neo-Christianity"

Between September 1949 and 1955, the year of his death, the category of 'Ultra-human' became the element around which Teilhard's thought was structured. The issues concerning the existence, nature, and future development of this neofor-mation, together with reflections on the theoretical and practical 'shock' that this new setting of human evolution produced in the fields of anthropology and religious thought, formed the main reference points of the Jesuit's theoretical work. Research within a 'New Anthropology' and a 'Neo-Christianity' became the favoured avenues for dealing with the unknown matters imposed by the transition towards the 'Ultra-human', an evolutionary regime in which the cognitive and operational performances of men, and their decisions, play an increasingly relevant role