Le Phénomène Humain has been a best-seller in France since its posthumous publication in 1955. The initial impact of the recent translation, published as The Phenomenon of Man, has been considerable. Never before, one imagines, in English publishing history, has a book by a Roman Catholic priest received such remarkable tributes in all types of journals and newspapers. ‘Book of the year’ for a number of well-known critics, ‘possibly the book of the century’ for one Sunday Times contributor.

During the period when Teilhard’s works were available only in French, one had heard doubt expressed as to whether he would ever appeal to more than a few in this country. After the events of recent months there is now every indication that the teilhardian movement will become as international in character as was Teilhard himself. It looks as if the influence of this remarkable man will come to be felt more and more in many different branches of human endeavour during the next few decades. For myself, I would go so far as to say that Teilhard’s vision—he writes like a visionary but a visionary whose feet are always planted very firmly on or in terra firma— marks the most significant achievement in synthetic thinking since that of Aquinas. We cannot afford to neglect him, because, quite simply, he seems in so many matters, and those the most important, to be so essentially right. His genius has sown many seeds which, in so far as they fall on receptive and fertile ground, would seem destined to grow and flower according to the pattern of those same laws of development which lie at the heart of his system of thought.