Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. 1877-1964
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. 1877-1964
FATHER Reginald Marie Garrigou-Lagrange, O.R (1877-1964) was probably the greatest Catholic theologian of the 20th century. (He is not to be confused with his uncle, Père Lagrange, the biblical scholar.) Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange initially attracted attention in the early 20th century, when he wrote against Modernism. Recognizing that Modernism—which denied the objective truth of divine revelation and affirmed an heretical conception of the evolution of dogma—struck at the very root of Catholic faith, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange wrote classic works on apologetics, defending the Catholic Faith by way of both philosophy and theology. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange taught at the Angelicum in Rome from 1909 to 1960, and he served for many years as a consultor to the Holy Office and other Roman Congregations. He is most famous, however, for his writings, having produced over 500 books and articles. In these he showed himself to be a thoroughgoing Thomist in the classic Dominican tradition.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange was best known for his spiritual theology, particularly for insisting that all are called to holiness and for zealously propounding the thesis that infused contemplation and the resulting mystical life are in the normal way of holiness or Christian perfection. His classic work in this field is The Three Ages of the Interior Life, in which the Catholic Faith stands out in all its splendor as a divine work of incomparable integrity, structure and beauty, ordered to raise man to the divine life of grace and bring to flower in him the "supernatural organism" of Sanctifying Grace and the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost—the wellsprings of all true mysticism. Among his other famous theological works are The Love of God and the Cross of Jesus, The Mother of the Saviour and our Interior Life, Providence, Predestination, Life Everlasting and Christ the Saviour. His most important philosophical work was God, His Existence and Nature: A Thomistic Solution of Certain Agnostic Antinomies.
The works of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange are unlikely to be equalled for many decades to come.