​Teilhard and Whitehead on Hope:

Omega Moments, Omega Communities, Omega Imaginings

Omega Moments
​

Collecting Light

by Deborah Cooper
​
I see the way the chickadees
take turns at the feeder.
I watch a neighbor take
her husband’s hand.

I see the way the sun will find
the only interruption
in dark clouds
to toss this amber light
across the pines.
​
I see a row of cars
stop on the road
until the orange cat
has safely crossed,
then take off slowly, should
she change her mind.

I watch the way my brother
lifts our mother from
the wheelchair
to the car,
the shawl he lays
across her lap.
​
I save up every scrap
of light,
because I know that it will take
each tiny consolation
every day
to mend the world.

Finding Omega in a Time of Need
​

"We live in a time of need, where people throughout the world seek visions of hope. This discussion explores the shared vision of Teilhard de Chardin and Alfred North Whitehead, both of whom see the universe as an evolutionary process with inwardness or subjectivity present from the very beginning. Teilhard emphasizes a cosmic pull toward the Omega Point, where love becomes all-encompassing, and describes the emergence of the noosphere—a sphere of collective human thought and consciousness—as a critical phase in this evolution. Whitehead, similarly, envisions a divine lure guiding all actual entities toward richer experiences and individuation, suggesting that love and creativity are not incidental to the cosmos but intrinsic to its unfolding. Tamminga and McDaniel will explore ways in which the two perspectives can be combined to form a meaningful, scientifically informed, and spiritually rich vision for human beings at this critical stage in history." (American Teilhard Association)

On March 18, I was part of a two-person dialogue with Dr. Ernie Tamminga, joined by eighty or ninety online participants, titled Teilhard and Whitehead on Hope. Many who were present spoke of a deep discouragement—an unease that felt both personal and collective. The world, and the United States in particular, seemed to be unraveling under the weight of division, cruelty, and the slow erosion of democracy. In such a climate, hope felt fragile, even elusive.

Ours was not merely a theoretical discussion. It was practical, existential, and spiritual. Might Teilhard and Whitehead offer anything? Might their visions of an unfolding universe help us make sense of our place in it, even in times of despair? What follows is my own sense of how these two thinkers, together, provide resources for stepping forward in hope—not naïve optimism, but a deep and grounded hope that is sensitive to suffering yet refuses to succumb to cynicism.

I am grateful to the American Teilhard Association for making this dialogue possible, and especially to my partner in conversation, from whom I have learned and continue to learn so much: Dr. Ernie Tamminga.

Is the Universe Moving Toward Omega?

Teilhard’s vision of Omega presents one possibility: that evolution itself is moving toward a final consummation, a future in which love will be all in all. For him, Omega is not merely an inspiring idea but an actual telos—a cosmic destiny in which the universe, through its long galactic unfolding, becomes ever more conscious of itself, culminating in a state of profound union. Not just humans, but all forms of sentience across the cosmos, participate in this journey.

For some, this vision is a source of profound hope. It suggests that, despite the darkness of the present, we are part of something larger—an evolutionary process that bends toward love. For others, however, the idea of a single Omega feels too prescriptive, too constrained. Given the vastness of the cosmos, with its trillions of stars and potential forms of life, it is difficult to imagine all things being drawn to a single conclusion. Evolution, even on Earth, appears open-ended rather than directional.

For those who find the notion of Omega as a cosmic inevitability unconvincing, it can still function as an aspirational ideal rather than an assured outcome. In this sense, Omega is not a guaranteed future but a guiding image—a horizon that invites our participation in the ongoing work of love, justice, and creativity. Whether or not the universe is moving toward Omega in some ultimate sense, we can still recognize the significance of Omega Moments, Omega Communities, and Omega Imaginings as ways of living toward wholeness in the here and now.

Omega Moments: Scraps of Light

Hope is rarely an abstract conviction. More often, it arises from experience—moments when we catch a glimpse of something larger, when love, connection, and aliveness break through the ordinary. These are Omega Moments: fleeting yet powerful experiences that remind us that all is not lost.

They happen between people—when a simple act of kindness restores faith, when a song unexpectedly opens the heart, when a conversation moves beyond argument into genuine understanding. But they also happen beyond the human world. A sunrise over the ocean, the hush of a forest at dusk, the vastness of a star-filled sky—these, too, are Omega Moments. They are flashes of harmony, of rightness, of love woven into the fabric of existence. See the poem by Deborah Cooper at the top of this page. When we partake of such moments, they become scraps of light - sacraments from ordinary life.

And they are relational sacraments at that. Teilhard and Whitehead both suggest that reality is relational at its core, that moments of deep connection are not just accidents but revelations of something fundamental about the nature of the universe. These moments do not last. They come and go, but they matter. They remind us that love is real, that wholeness is possible, that despair does not have the final word.

Omega Communities: Living Toward Love

If Omega Moments are sparks, Omega Communities are campfires—places where love and connection are cultivated, where the spirit of Omega is made real in human and more-than-human relationships. These communities can take many forms: families, churches, cities, intentional collectives, artistic circles. What defines them is not perfection, but aspiration. They are places where people actively seek to embody love in their way of being together.

But an Omega Community is not just a human collective. It is a way of inhabiting the world in relationship with the more-than-human—the trees, rivers, soil, and creatures with whom we share this planet. A town that preserves its natural spaces, a farm that respects the integrity of the land, a household that tends a garden as an act of care—these, too, are expressions of the Omega Spirit. There is no true love without love for the earth that sustains us.

Teilhard saw the cosmos as an unfolding story, and Whitehead emphasized the interconnectedness of all things. An Omega Community, then, is one that does not isolate itself from the world’s pain but seeks to be a place of healing, where justice and compassion take root. It is a way of life that embraces the fundamental relationality of existence, where people and nature are not separate but part of a shared wholeness.

Omega Imaginings: The Art of Possibility

Teilhard and Whitehead remind us that imagination is not a luxury—it is a necessity. Even when the world is at its darkest, hope can live in the realm of imagination. We see it in poetry, in music, in film, in dreams. Omega Imaginings are those acts of artistic and spiritual vision that take the idea of Omega and give it form—not as dogma, but as possibility.

We see Omega Imaginings in grand narratives of love and redemption, in quiet stories where kindness flickers in unexpected places. We see them in murals that transform city walls into testaments of resilience, in symphonies that move the soul, in protest songs that refuse to let injustice have the final word. And we see them in the metaphors drawn from the natural world—the river as renewal, the tree as rootedness, the stars as whispers of something greater.

Teilhard’s Omega was not merely a theory; it was a vision. Whether or not we believe in a final Omega, we can participate in the act of imagining it. And imagination is not passive. It inspires action. It opens doors. It reminds us that another world is possible.

Christ and Omega

For those of us who, like Whitehead, believe that the universe unfolds within the larger Life of God—what he calls the consequent nature of God—there is another way of thinking about Omega. In this view, Omega is not only a future to be realized but an ever-present reality. It already exists as an encompassing field of love, holding all things in relationship. Omega is the living whole of the universe, understood as having a life of its own, just as (for Teilhard and Whitehead) each creature in the universe also has a life of its own, Subjectivity - inwardness - reality for itself-ness - is everywhere in one way or another. The living Whole, too, has subjectivity and a life of its own. It is a You and not simply an It. We can pray to Omega, dance in the presence of Omega, shed tears into Omega, and rest in Omega's embrace.

This means that every event that transpires on earth or anywhere in the cosmos, and in any dimension, becomes part of the ongoing life of Omega as it unfolds and is woven into an inclusive field of life, while retaining its unique nature. All the joys, all the sufferings, all the achievements, all the mistakes are rendered into a panoramic quilt of sorts, and the quilt is itself evolving through time, It is God's life and it is love. We ourselves are part of this life, here and now. We do not need to arrive at a future to get to it; this side of Omega is always already here.

Whitehead adds that the very God who is an encompassing field is also an ever-freshening lure, offering new possibilities for living in the world—possibilities that come to us from a deeper and divine source. These are the non-coercive lures by which God works, possibilities that require our cooperation but are not mere projections of our own minds. They contain fresh possibilities and empowering energies—divine desires—that can give us strength even in the absence of hope.

John Cobb speaks of this side of God as a lure toward creative transformation at work in the world and identifies it with the living Christ. He proposes that Christ, thus understood, was revealed but not exhausted in the healing ministry of Jesus, such that Jesus becomes a place, and beyond that a person, in whose presence with find the very love we seek. We need not be Christian in order to find God in this way. People of other religions and people without any religion can partake of the Christ revealed in Jesus, and name it in different ways. Jesus himself was not a Christian.

Thus, the Harmony of Harmonies is also an empowering spirit, one that embraces us in the present, whatever our condition, and calls us toward renewal, even when the future remains uncertain. This spirit can also be called, quite fruitfully, Omega. Whether or not Omega is a final destination, Omega then becomes Life in which our lives unfold and a way of living—a way of walking, of seeing, of being in the world. And in this, there is hope.