The Hours of the Universe: Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey

by Ilia Delio

In a traditional monastery the recitation of the Hours calls to mind the work of God in our lives, from the gift of creation to the sufferings we bear. According to scientist, theologian, and author Ilia Delio, the universe is the new monastery. In her latest work she offers reflections for this new monastery to a broad, general audience seeking new meaning and purpose in today's world.

Genres: Spirituality, Nonfiction, Christian

274 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2021

About the author

Ilia Delio, OSF is a Franciscan Sister of Washington, D.C. and American theologian specializing in the area of science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics and neuroscience and the importance of these for theology. She was born in Newark, New Jersey and is the youngest of four children.


Fordham University
Ph.D., Historical Theology
M.A. Historical Theology

Rutgers University Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences
Ph. D., Pharmacology

Seton Hall University
M.S., Biology

DeSales University
B.S., Biology

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful and Beautiful

I really enjoyed this book. It was ideally suited to a chapter a day as a kind of reflection/devotional, however on several occasions I couldn’t help but read ahead. The pages are soaked in highlighter ink with tons to revisit.
Thoughtful, inspiring and prophetic, Delio shares the heart of the cosmos in ways that land in real life and provoke one to deeper relationship and action.

[MaryAnne]

Ilia Delio is Catholic American theologian "specializing in the area of science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics and neuroscience and the import of these for theology." Her passion is to help faith move from a worldview based on Newtonian science (which presented a static and fixed framework for the universe based on concepts of static space and static time which were considered independent of one another) to a worldview based on Einstein’s understandings (where space and time form a continuum and are part of the physical fabric of the universe, in other words matter and energy are two forms of the same reality.) Just like religious understandings had to change when Galileo discovered that the sun, not the earth, was the center of our solar system, so too the church today must bring its understandings of faith into sync with the truths of quantum physics.

The Hours of the Universe: Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey is a collection of short essays, organized into chapters following the daily liturgy of prayers of a monastery (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline). This structure shows Delio’s belief that the universe itself is the new monastery, the place to find God. Her work is based on the firm belief that Christians must incorporate evolution into our faith, not just as a nice theory, but as a prime function of who God is and how God works. The life of the planet depends on it.

Here are some of the points she builds on:
• The message on Jesus was one of seeing, believing, and trusting in the empowering presence of God.
• Jesus offered a new set of values, teaching us how to live on the edge of a new tomorrow.
• God is doing things through us; we are the new creation in the process.
• Principles of nature are the fundamental principles of human personhood.
• The maxim of nature is life seeks more life.
• Earth is indeed the primary reality and we are derivatives of earthly life.
• We are not meant to control nature, but instead to be its heart and mind as it seeks its ultimate fulfillment. If we seek to manipulate nature it will rise up against us.
• The part about the teacher and be summed up in one word: evolution.
• Evolution works according to many factors beyond the simple rules of Charles Darwin, and one of the most significant factors is information. Evolution is a function of information and complexity, an increase in complexity corresponds to a rise in consciousness.
• While Computer Technology has enhanced the rate of evolution, most human support systems including religious, educational, and political systems are still structured according to a static, fixed model of closed systems, the Newtonian paradigm of the autonomous individual. Hence, the information-driven person who is electronically connected is a living from an evolutionary open-system consciousness, while the support systems are individuated, closed systems. To continue this trajectory is to anticipate global breakdown. Newtonian systems can no longer sustain human life. Without rewiring support systems along the line of complex systems, we are headed for global systems failure.
• What is needed is a new synthesis that emerges from the insights of science and religion.
• The total material universe is in movement toward a greater unified convergence. As life systems unite in far more complex relationships, consciousness rises.
• Before humans emerged, it was natural selection that set the course of morphogenesis; after humans it is the power of invention that begins to grasp the evolutionary reins. Technology is a new evolutionary means of convergence; it is accelerating evolution by causing humankind to concentrate upon itself through complex levels of information.
• To separate theology from science and philosophy is to destroy the cosmic genetic code.
• We have an urgent need to construct a new religious story today. Theology can no longer be content to roam around the Patristic and Middle Ages while importing ancient ideas into the 21st century. We have confused the history with a living God.
• A theology that does not begin with evolution and the story of the universe is a useless fabrication.
Delio’s goal is that her work can be a source of prayerful reading, a searching for the depth of God’s intimate presence in a world of chaos and change, for we are not alone and have no reason to fear. God is doing new things and our response in faithfulness and love can bring forth a new communion of planetary life.

This is a hope-filled book.

[Frank Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the past several years I have been pondering the question: How do we reimagine (re-image) Christianity in a way that embraces both post-modern culture and the findings of science while remaining Christocentric. One direction this pondering has taken me is that of looking at the works of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit, trained paleontologist and philosopher.
As I have pondered the question, I have become more and more convinced that part of the answer lies in re-thinking the meaning of the Incarnation. [Teilhard adds much to this endeavor.] In doing so, I’ve been drawn to the Liturgical Hours, as well as the Liturgical Calendar. It seems to me that in some way, the Liturgy parallels a cosmic liturgy of sorts, one that is a forever-spiraling, forever-expanding, forever-evolving. If this is true, how does this change our understanding of God?
Ilia Delio and her expansion and application of the forward-thinking idea of Teilhard were not new to me, but how could I not be drawn by the title, The HOURS of the UNIVERSE, especially when I’ve been thinking along liturgical lines? And I am glad I was. The book is both provocative and meditative. Quite a feat to accomplish.
The Center for Christogenesis website lays out the basic thought of Teilhard, along with Delio application, with four distinctions:
God-Omega – The unescapable, absolute power of love. Omega is the revelation of God as the fullness of love, the heart of the universe – the heart of all creation.
Spiritual Evolution – If evolution is the story of physical reality, then evolution is essential to our understanding of God and God’s relationship to the world. Thus, physical and spiritual reality are intertwined.
Continual Creation – The universe is incomplete, as are we as humans. The process of evolution continues, and through it, we can change, grow and become something new. The website asks the question: “We have the power to do so, but do we have the will?”
Cosmic Wholemaking – “Love is the fundamental energy of evolution. Love is a consciousness of belonging to another, of being part of a whole. To love is to be on the way toward integral wholeness, to live with an openness of mind and heart, to encounter the other—not as stranger—but as another part of oneself. When we enter into the heart of love, that integral wholeness of love that is God, we enter into the field of relatedness and come to see that we are wholes within wholes.” The challenge for Christianity is to center herself in love in such a way that allows science to inform her stories, while at the same time, offer to scientific reductionism a creative vision for the world.
The book’s subtitle, "Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey", assures us that each of these “distinctions” are explored and connected in The HOURS of the UNIVERSE.
The book’s title, The HOURS of the UNIVERSE is meant to convey the idea that the universe is the new monastery, “the place to find God (p. xvii).” The recitation of the Hours (used to divide sections) reminds us of the work of God in our lives, that the new monastery is the Cathedral of the universe. Each recitation of the Hour is a poetic meditation that expands the Trinity into the “arc of the universe.”
The book is a collection of essays, written over the years, offering a new theological vision that gives new meaning and purpose for today’s world. Written for a broad, general audience, this book is the perfect introduction for those unfamiliar with Delio’s work, Teilhard, or Christogenesis.
The vision that Delio offers is fresh, yet Christocentric. Her writing recovers and restores to Christian theology that which has been pushed aside and ignored, even negated, by our prevalent Scholastic Theology—The related disciplines of science and philosophy. Once, both were disciplines of Christian thinking.
I don’t like marking up books. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of it, and The HOURS of the UNIVERSE is one of those books being marked, lots of underlines, side notes/questions, and exclamation points.
Some of those markings fall on the pages where Delio distinguishes the thinking of Teilhard from Darwin on evolution. Even though some make Teilhard out as a Darwinian Evolutionist (a prevalent thinking among some Christians), he was not. For Tielhard, Darwin’s theory did not account for novelty and transcendence in nature. He believed that the phenomena of evolution is “something more than and very different from the mere genesis of animal species (quoted from Teilhard’s “The Energy of Evolution,” p. 16 in “Hours”). Following along the thinking of Henri Bergson, Teilhard developed the concept of God-Omega in which God is not supernatural, but supra-natural. This concept is central to the work of Teilhard, and thus that of Delio.
Now is a good place to comment on the charge that Tielhard’s thinking is pantheistic (Chap. 9). To claim this is to misunderstand Tielhard. Not only was Tielhard a scientist and philosopher, he was a mystic. And we must view his thinking through that lens. If as the Apostle Paul writes, the God of Jesus Christ “fills all things (Eph 1:23),” then God must be found in all things. In this sense Tielhard is a pantheist, but not in traditional sense of the material being God.
I can honestly say that every chapter both challenges and inspires my thinking. Two chapters in particular helped crystalize my thinking in terms of reimagining Christianity. “The Cosmic Chrtist” (Chap. 15) and “Christ the Future” (Chap. 16).
In “The Cosmic Christ,” Delio draws upon Richard Rohr’s The Universal Christ, the Celtic Latin Franciscan theologian, John Duns Scotus, and Teilhard to explore the idea of the Cosmic Christ. Christ in the Trinity becomes the symbol of a communion of love. Not an abstract symbol, rather the communion of the divine community of love (“persons-in-love” p. 105) expressed in every personal form of reality. Thus, one does not have to be Christian to know the Christ. Born out of the love of God, every one of us expresses this love in our personal form. Jesus is the “’thisness of God, so what Jesus is by nature, everything else is by grace (divine love) (p.104).” And because Christ is the Christ, every human is already reconciled with every other human in the “mystery of the divine.” Christ therefore is more than Jesus alone. Christ is the whole of reality bound together in love.
This is the message that humanity needs to hear. It is a message that Christians need to learn to practice. It is Christianity reimagined. Delio expands upon this in “Christ the Future.” Delio ends that chapter with these words:
"When we awaken to the realization that the meaning of Jesus Christ is somehow the center of reality, that our porous humanity is open to divine reality, we find that our life must be reordered to correspond to that realization. Through the human person a new reality emerges, born out of new structures of consciousness. Humanity becomes a new creative center of God’s self-involving love (p. 110)."
This is the Incarnation. It is Christianity reimagined.
The question then, as Delio asks in her closing words, “How well did I love today? For in the evening of life, love alone will determine how we shall live forever (p.242).”
In Chapter 4, Delio asks, “Can we discover God anew?” The answer is an unqualified, YES!
____
Ilia Delio has been called, “One of the most creative thinkers on the dialogue between religion and science. I would add that she is a master of leading us to reflect creatively on the gift of creation, our humanity, and our ultimate destiny, and all that evolves along the way. The HOURS of the UNIVERSE is a delightful gift to be read, to be meditated upon, to be a challenge to how we live as Christians. I recommend that we read it—again and again.
Ilia Delio, OSF, PhD is a Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC and American theologian specializing in the area of science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics and neuroscience and the import of these for theology. She currently holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University and is author of twenty books and the CEO and Founder of The Center for Christogenesis (https://christogenesis.org).

[David E. Schutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Jolted"

Everyone really needs to read and digest this book and amend their lives accordingly. A thought came to me frequently in my contemplative journey with the author through these essays ; "she is preaching to the choir". In my life as now a 78 year old man, retired Alaskan bush teacher and Catholic deacon, I known one spiritual other who understands how the author and others write. She is the only person who I know who can resonate and reciprocate with me along these lines of interrelated experience. Tielhard once said that "our lives are filled with jolts and if we survive them we are never the same again". IV had a couple of them as I was challenged by leaps of faith and moving from stages and levels of spirituality and maturity. Once I became conscious I accepted the guidance on my inner center and never once doubted my direction or looked back. I practiced unity, non duality and full equality of women and men in all ways. For me, this is becoming a fully human / divine being centered on the Third Way of Christo Sophia. In May of 2019, I was told by one pastor that I was no longer needed as a deacon. I told him that I understood completely. And walked on the door. I've not returned. I walked into the love of Holy Sophia and have not turned back. I have forgiven him, he simply doesn't know any better. Sadly, I don't think he would get far into this book. I long for companionship yet I have found one person in my life to resonate with. I'm single and practice contemplative life. I long for a contemplative community church within which to practice and promote the practices found in this book . Sadly, the concept of evolutionary presence is lacking greatly. We have all the right directions and words but if we can not break through our nostalgia over tradition, and into New Life above and beyond the cross and tomb, that is into resurrection and glorification, we will go nowhere soon.

[Maxwell S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given to me by my grandfather, it’s an introduction to a theology that I don’t quite understand. This book is a collection of essays so there is quite a bit of repetition. Just letting the ideas sink in, this was a practical start. I’m not sure this is the direction my theology is moving, but I definitely had some aha moments. I like her defense of the progressive ethic, how God takes part in what what we do on earth. But there is also quite a bit of fluff? Things that seems like wishful thinking or just things that feel like a stretch in general. I do respect the motivations and the values that are behind these ethics. I’m not sure I agree or would push Christians to read her, but I think Christians would in general benefit from her attitudes.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The backstory says this, "Ilia Delio is one of the most creative thinkers on the dialogue between religion and science." As such she takes readers on a long journey that leads to one conclusion - "God is the name of absolute hope and future." How she gets readers to that conclusion is what the core of this book reveals. This is not a book to convict people to accept Christianity, but it is a book to help readers see our interconnectedness. This was a good read, a read that would help all readers better understand the relationship of God, the Creation, and how everything is connected because of divine love. Enjoy.

[Jody · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very difficult to read initially, but I assumed that would be the case going into this book. Ilia Delio is brilliant. But as I read, the information and her insights became engrossing. Lots to learn and think about.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely meditation on the sanctity of all that is. Delio is at her finest.

[Sharon Halsey-Hoover]

This is a profoundly powerful book. Ilia Delio calls us to commit to living in love as our primary purpose in life.

[Renee Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am finished, but it is the kind of book I will read over and over again, as is the intent of the author anyway. Beautiful, thought-provoking, and wise.

[Krista Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisite. I am always most thankful for books that give words to what I’ve yet been unable to give words to. This book did that for me and gave me great hope.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. I'm very interested in Chardin and the current understanding of where his theology is headed. I see this author,Ilia Delio OSF, as a leading scholar in that field.