.jpg)
MadPriest commented on the post below about the tendency to sentimentalize and glorify the "Celtic Christianity," which I observe to be a wide American phenomenon. I loved Mary Earle's presentation on Saturday. She is a learned Episcopal priest and an excellent speaker. However, I need to remember how each of us speaks through our filters of preferences and dislikes, just the way I listen, too! Every person does this, so there is no escaping, except for the awareness that we do so. That is why community is so important--different angles are observed by various people to present a larger (but not complete) image.* So I am appreciative of MadPriest for pointing out the tendency to paint a "golden age" of Christianity. I have a lot to learn!
Now here I am quoting someone I found through google, not know anything about her except that she wrote a book--Visions and Voyages: The Story of Celtic Spirituality by Fay Sampson. However, she says that she wrote yet another book on this topic because:
"There is a tiresome amount of sentimentality about Celtic Christianity. Many people are searching for a golden age which never existed. I wanted to show them something as close to the reality as I could get. The Celtic saints were often hot-tempered and wrong-headed, but at their best gloriously in love with God and utterly careless of their own welfare. This book expresses my enthusiasm for them, but also shows they could be pretty uncomfortable to live with. Yet they have insights of real and lasting value to offer us, truths which for centuries were suppressed. Today their values resonate with people outside as well as inside the Church."
Now here's another avenue of exploration for me. . . .books by Ian Bradley are the first to find.
Still, from Saturday's talk, I gratefully take the nuggets of truth that hit me--everything is holy and I am never alone.
*HOW we see shapes WHAT we see!
12 comments:
It's always good to know that practioners are real. Warts and all, the Celts offer us much.
Jiff, thanks. That's the truth. Who doesn't have warts/flaws/ idiosyncracies?
This also makes me think of the Desert Mothers and Fathers. Roberta Bondi helped me to find such wisdom in their writings, but some of them were pretty weird!
I think Frederick Buechner's book Brendan is about a Celtic saint.
The "Celtic" church would never have thought of itself as such. They would have regarded themselves as the orthodox in Britain and until the invasion of the Roman church in the 7th. Century they were our church. Their territory grew and shrunk according to the influence of paganism. We had waves of pagan invasions right up to the Norman Conquest.
You have to be careful of claims made about Celtic spirituality as it has been hijacked, to some extent, by the new age movement and its Christian manifestations. I would say that the most important aspects of Celtic Christian life were:
a) a commitment to stand alongside the poor in their poverty
b) humility. Authority was regarded as a burden not a prize. Leadership was to serve.
c) Mission. There's was a kingdom theology and they really wanted to take the kingdom to everybody, not for reward, but because they really believed the kingdom of God was great.
d) finding a balance between retreat from the world and engagement with the nitty gritty politics of the world.
All of which is why I say that the traditional Celtic Christians offer us much, Madpriest.
I am big on Celtic spirituality for good or ill.
Right now I am luxuriating in listening to (I think he demands to be listened too, with his gorgeous voice)John O'Donohue's Eternal Echoes.
I recommend this link as an introduction.
If you have not read Anam Cara, I most highly recommend it!.
Sadly O'Donohue died early and unexpectedtly this year.
Jan, I believe that it is quite likely that not a few of those whom we think of as great saints, Celtic and otherwise, were not particularly easy to be around on a daily basis.
I make my point with the example of St. Brigid of Kildare.
I'd love to know how Grandpere manages it, day after day.
I have to admit that I don't know what Celtic spirituality really is supposed to be, or what distinguishes it from other forms of spirituality. I do know that there is a church in San Francisco that explicitly considers itself to be practicing Celtic spirituality.
Mystical Seeker, thanks for the link. It looked interesting. I can't give you much more info about Celtic Spirituality--I am just learning about it myself and am waiting for some books to arrive to read.
Excellent post, Jan.
I have felt drawn to Celtic spirituality, but with the reservations you mention. It could not have been/be perfect, because we are all human beings living with the human condition! As long as we remember that, I think Celtic spirituality has a lot to offer.
It's interesting to read Mad Priest's take on Celtic Christianity, because it seems more down to earth than, say, Philip Newell's. I like Newell, but sometimes I wonder if he's romanticizing it more than a little. I have heard him speak and he makes excellent points, I'm just not sure they really belong to Celtic Christianity. Or even spirituality. It's all so perfect and new-agey.
"Many people are searching for a golden age which never existed." This is what I thought when a yoga friend recently commented on how Christianity came in and destroyed the "Goddess culture"--as if there was some paradise on earth in pre-Christian days.
Post a Comment