Father Matthew Lamb has devoted his life to recalling students and believers to the reality that there is a "life of wisdom," a way of living in the light of eternity, living in accord with what is highest in the human person. In our busy lives we often get distracted by the daily difficulties that we face, until it seems that we are simply living in order to work, pay taxes, and go shopping. In the midst of this environment, Father Lamb powerfully reminds us that our true identity is known only in light of Christ's Resurrection; we can find ourselves only through knowing and loving God the Father in Christ and his Spirit. With rigorous theological erudition, Father Lamb explores the Christian life of wisdom in the context of Enlightenment cultures.
The Bible tells us that attaining seventy years marks the strong. Strength captures the character of Matthew Lamb. He is strong in holiness of life. Strong in excellence of scholarship. Strong in his commitment to sanctify the human intelligence. Father Matt is also strong in humility. He has devoted so much time to helping others discover the riches of Christ that he has not safeguarded the leisure time that many scholars of his peerage devote to the production of their own works. So it is a great blessing that Michael Dauphinais and Matthew Levering have honored their spiritual father and mentor by collecting his essays into a commemorative volume. The very strong make eighty. Ad multos annos. May Father Lamb's work of the next decade continue to bear the rich spiritual fruit that is so amply demonstrated in this book. --Romanus Cessario, O.P., St. John's Seminary, Boston, Massachusetts
Those who know of Father Lamb only that he has made an insistent call to order in the house of American Catholic theology can find in this volume an example of what such order can lead to and what contemporary theological achievement must be--faithful to the Church and her tradition, and ready fairly to engage but only critically to appropriate what modern science, culture, and philosophy offer. In these essays, Father Lamb does not tell us of the promise of a renewed Catholic theology, but shows us the promise by fulfilling it. --Guy Mansini, OSB, St. Meinrad's Seminary
These seven substantial essays treat of various aspects of the need for conflict resolution between several aspects of modern thought and the Catholic Tradition. Rather than engage in the type of libido dominandi that he correctly sees present in one degree or another in the movement of thought which finally resulted in modernism and its heirs, Matthew Lamb proceeds dialectically. Under the guidance of Bernard Lonergan's intellectual corpus, Lamb re-penetrates ancient thought and engages modern thought in a manner which exposes the weaknesses of the latter while respecting its intellectual advances. This is an important contribution in our efforts to receive Vatican II correctly. --Fr. Francis Martin, Cardinal Adam Maida Chair in Biblical Theology, Sacred Heart Major Seminary
