Book Review: The Way of the Lamb



by Marlene Gillette

According to John Saward, author of The Way of the Lamb, this book was “a gift from my own children.” Saward, a professor of dogmatic theology at the International Theological Institute in Austria, states that he had been conducting research on this book for more than 20 years, but that it was his youngest daughter, Anna, who suggested the title. And the book, as are children, is indeed a great gift for readers.

Saward’s primary message in The Way of the Lamb is that “the sin of this century is the sin against the child.” With this focus, Saward addresses the many harms perpetrated against children—including abortion—as well as the destruction of the spiritual childhood to which every soul is called for its salvation. He asserts that through the destruction of the man-child, Satan wishes to destroy the Only-Begotten Divine Child.

The author draws from the wisdom of St. Thèrese of Lisieux, G.K. Chesterton, Charles Pèguy, Georges Bernanos and Hans Urs von Balthasar—all renowned for their inspirational Catholic writings.

St. Thèrese of Lisieux, a doctor of the Church, was inwardly aware of the need to “become as a little child” in order to enter Heaven. Saward notes that St. Thèrese was strongly drawn to the Holy Innocents. He also mentions that the latter part of the 19th century, the time in which St. Thèrese lived, marked the beginning of the birth control movement. It was the announcement of the coming of the age against children.

G.K. Chesterton, a convert and renowned Catholic writer, left the darkness of agnosticism to follow what Saward termed “the lamp of the Lamb.” According to Chesterton, “Mine is a memory of a sort of white light…the point is that the white light had a sort of wonder in it, as if the world were as new as myself; but not that the world was anything but a real world.” For Chesterton, the child “does not fall into pessimism; he falls into a pond.”

Saward highlights another writer, Charles Pèguy, who returned to his Catholic roots after delving into socialist philosophies. Pèguy stated in his poetry that “God Himself” is “young and eternal.” Saward adds that: “Pèguy perceived that a Christology without Christmas, a Sermon on the Mount without the Son of the Manger, produces…an enlightened teacher or a moral example… . This was not a Christ for whom a man might die….”

Georges Bernanos, yet another Catholic writer, understood that the “drama of atheistic humanism is the conspiracy against the child, always against his spirit, more and more often against his life.” In his novels, Bernanos “shows us how the beginning awaits re-discovery in the end. Death, disease and old age entered this world…but by the providence of God they can be an opportunity for man to recover all that was most beautiful in his childhood: humility, gratitude, receptivity.”

Saward’s final example, Hans Urs von Balthasar, a renowned theologian, also offers much on which to meditate. Von Balthasar stated: “The backward glance to lost childhood…is…a longing for a lost innocence and intimacy with God that Jesus and Mary never lost.” In addition, von Balthasar points to “the terrible consequences of taking the Child from His Mother.” Without Mary, “…the Church becomes functionalistic, soulless, a hectic enterprise without any point of rest, estranged from its nature by the planners.” This scenario offers a stark similarity with the spiritual despair and emptiness of women suffering from post-abortion trauma.

The Way of the Lamb serves a noble purpose in that it reveals the important—and often overlooked—need to embrace spiritual childhood. As Saward explains, spiritual childhood is reflected in the human child. Thus, this book enriches the meaning of defending life, and gives full meaning to the biblical words, “a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6).

Marlene Gillette is an associate in development at Human Life International.

(This article courtesy of HLI Reports, a publication of Human Life International.)

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