In Memory of Father Matthew Lamb: Pater et Magister

In his doctoral colloquia on the ancients and the moderns, Fr. Lamb was fond of observing Socrates' final line from the Apology, "But now it is time to go away, I to die and you to live. Which of us goes to a better thing is unclear to everyone except to the god (ho theos)." A lifelong devotee of the wisdom of Plato and Aristotle, Fr. Lamb never hesitated to affirm the newness of the Gospel and its promise of eternal life. We now know that death has lost its sting and has become a dies natalis, a day of birth, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word.

The Book of Sirach chapter 44 writes, "Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers in their generations; … leaders of the people in their deliberations and in understanding of learning for the people, wise in their words of instruction." Such men "were the glory of their times. There are some of them who have left a name, so that men declare their praise." In a priestly vocation and theological career in which he was in Rome during the Second Vatican Council and played a significant role in many of the theological debates of his time, Fr. Matthew Lamb was indeed among the "leaders of the people in their deliberations" who were "wise in their words of instruction."

Fr. Lamb was born in 1937 to parents whom he frequently and affectionately would describe as loving and devout Catholics. He entered the Trappist monastery of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia just before his fifteenth birthday. He would often say that he first went to the monastery because his mother invited him to go on a weekend retreat and he said to himself, "yes, I can get out of Saturday chores!" For many years, he immersed himself in the Trappist life of prayer and work, of silence and fasting, and of studying the Scripture, the Fathers, Aquinas, as well as some contemporary theological scholarship.

During the 1960's, his abbot suggested that he go to Rome to earn advanced degrees in theology. There he encountered Bernard Lonergan—whose work he had previously begun reading—a scholar and teacher who inspired countless Catholic theologians who would go on to impact Catholic theology around the globe. In his later years, he would describe Lonergan's influence especially in its relation to a deepening of his understanding of the wisdom found in Augustine and Aquinas. Studying in Rome during the council and its aftermath, Fr. Lamb witnessed firsthand many of the theological trends and conversations that would dominate the practice of Catholic theology in the subsequent decades. He would often tell stories to students about conversations with and among Karl Rahner, Henri de Lubac, Bernard Lonergan, Hans Kung as well as with notable Catholics such as Dorothy Day and Flannery O'Connor. After earning an STL from the Gregorianum in Rome, he went to study at the University of Münster, Germany under Johann Baptist Metz. He completed his Doctorate in Theology "Summa cum laude" and earned the University Prize for the best dissertation in Catholic Theology in 1974.

From that time forward, he dedicated himself to a singular task: the formation of doctoral students in the Catholic theological tradition. Already ordained a Roman Catholic priest, he was incardinated in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to allow for dedication to teaching outside of the monastery. Fr. Lamb's doctoral instruction would span five decades as he first taught at Marquette University, then Boston College, and finally Ave Maria University, where he founded and directed the Patrick F. Taylor Graduate Programs in Theology. Fr. Lamb's doctoral students now teach across the United States and abroad, in seminaries, colleges, universities, and dioceses.

In 1990, Fr. Lamb published an epochal essay in America Magazine entitled, "Will There Be Catholic Theology in the United States?" In this essay, he went public with the beginning of what he would lightheartedly call "Lamb's Lamentations." He cautioned against what he termed the "Protestantization" of Catholic theology in which Catholic theologians...