A Quick Historical Context The lambda calculus was developed in the 1930s by the mathematician Alonzo Church, none other than the teacher of Alan Turing, atheist, homosexual, father of the computer science. It was introduced as a way to explore the foundations of mathematics and computation. Introduction to the Lambda Calculus The title of the post is a quote from the introduction to Thomas Garrity’s “Mathematical Maturity” lecture (I recommend you watch it before continuing.