Teilhard de Chardin on Insects in "The Phenomenon of Man"

Abstract

The year 2009 saw the publication of a curious work bearing the title The Secret Life of Insects: An Entomological Alphabet (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers). The author, Peter Milward (b. 1925), excels in having combined together humour and profundity. The title is indeed curious and attention-catching, although it can also be misleading, for in fact the book contains a wide series of philosophical and theological reflections. Milward himself confesses in the book’s prologue: “I make no claim to entomological expertise. That is to say, I confess my ignorance of insects … I know nothing about insects, except what everybody knows.”As Milward proceeds to explain, his original and insightful reflections about insects “go on to discourse about the philosophy and the theology of the universe, ending (of course) with God”.