Abstract

This is a collection of early essays. It ought to be read with The Future of Man before any of his other works, particularly before trying to stumble through such terms as the 'Noosphere,' 'forced coalescence,' 'Migh-Synthesis'. Teilhard does not argue in syllogistic form, which may be scandalous to Scholastics. But then he does not argue at all. He seems to assume that he is writing to a select group of cognoscenti, who know as much about science and philosophy as he. He does not take issue with his contemporaries --nor with the great thinkers of the past. One senses something of his intellectual isolation, and one is awed all the more by Teilhard's accomplishments. There are some problems with Teilhard's use of familiar scientific terms, especially as they are presented to a non-scientific reader. Teilhard supports the mentality of the modern believing Christian. He argues that "at extreme degrees of physico-chemical complexity, attaining the order of a million atoms, particles become 'animate'. At the level of the viruses we meet an ill-defined function which separates living from non-living beings." It is that kind of world-view that is consonant with both modern theology and modern science, at least in a Christian context.--W. A. J.