Reimaging Christianity — Part 2

Listening For The Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality by Dr. John Philip Newell —Book Review — Part 2 of 3

Introduction: Listening Within Creation

In Part 1 of this book review we discovered the Celtic tradition’s emphasis upon seeing the image of God in everything and everyone and why it is best reflected in the biblical character and writings of the “beloved” John the Apostle. This perspective was sharply contrasted by the Roman tradition’s emphasis upon seeing the image of God in doctrine, order and church traditions, and is best reflected in Peter the Apostle, referred as “the rock” upon which the church is built upon.

We also reviewed Dr. Newell’s explanation of the first major theological clash in the 4th century between Celtic monk and teacher, Pelagius — who espoused a deep confidence in the “original goodness” of mankind and the earth — and Augustine of Hippo — who taught of mankind’s and the earth’s “original sin” — a popular theory among religious/political leaders in the new “Holy” Roman empire.

In Part 2 we will examine the role which four important Celtic leaders played in carrying and spreading the tradition during the 6th through 9th centuries — the well-known Irish evangelist Saint Patrick, the Scottish evangelist and founder of the Iona Abby Columbo, Ireland’s female patron saint Brigit of Kildare, and John Scotus Eriugena, considered the greatest teacher the Celtic tradition has ever produced.

During the early 5th century when Pelagius was excommunicated from the Roman church and exiled to a monastery in Ireland, came the Angles and Saxon barbarian invasions and the sack of Rome (410 A.D.) which resulted in the withdrawal from Britain of the Roman army and church. This ushered in “a 200-year development and flourishing of the Celtic spirituality and tradition, free from Roman domination,” writes Dr. Newell.

Saint Patrick Celebrated Heaven’s Presence on Earth

About the same time in 430 A.D., Ireland’s greatest evangelist and patron, Saint Patrick (386–460 A.D.) began his mission to bring Christianity to Ireland.

Although born in Britain, at age 16 he was taken captive by Irish raiders and taken into captivity in Ireland. “He spent six bleak years in Ireland as a herdsman, during which he turned with fervor to his faith…Utterly confident in the Lord, he journeyed far and wide, baptizing with untiring zeal,” reports Britannia.

Everywhere St. Patrick went he brought with him the Celtic emphasis upon “the goodness of creation and a sense of the company of heaven’s presence among us on earth,” writes Newell.

“Just as Pelagius emphasized our essential God-given goodness, so there is in the tradition of St. Patrick an awareness that all created things carry within them the grace and goodness of God.”

In St. Patrick’s famous “Breastplate” hymn he makes the vital connection between the spiritual and material world as well as the centrality of Christ as everywhere present;

“Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.”

“In the years after the seed of the gospel was planted in Irish soil came an extraordinary growth of imagination and cultural-religious activity,” writes Newell.

The willingness of the early Irish Christians to accept, rather than eliminate many aspects of the earlier pre-Christian nature mysticism, stands as a powerful example of a more inclusive spirituality which God seems to be restoring in our generation.

“Unlike the Roman tradition, there was no desire to change everything or sweep away all that had gone before it, instead, the gospel was permitted to work its mystery of transformation in the life and culture of the people,” writes Newell.

One can only imagine how different American history would be if the early Christian leaders and settlers trusted God to convert the hearts of native Americans rather than treating them as “heathen savages” and demanding they abandon their earth-honoring lifestyle and spiritual practices.

“If we can believe that we are loved just as we are and that everything else is equally loved, we unveil a cosmic reality that is life-giving and a Christ-like reality that affirms the goodness of all creation,” writes Dr. Barbara A. Holmes.

Brigit of Kildare — “Church of the Oaks”

The female patron saint of Ireland, Brigit of Kildare (451–521 A.D.) was the Celtic foundress of several monasteries of nuns, including Kildare.

Kildare which means ‘church of the oaks’ was located in a grove of oak trees, which were considered sacred and a fitting location for its mission as a Celtic religious community for both men and women.

“It is said that Brigit’s mother had been baptized by Patrick and her father was a Druid priest. In legend she symbolized this meeting of the gospel with pre-Christian Ireland…Brigit was said to have used herbal remedies, representative of the Celtic conviction that God’s restorative graces were hidden in earth’s elements,” writes Newell.

Brigid herself was born into slavery, but as she grew older was said to have performed miracles, including healing and feeding the poor. She is credited with founding a school of art, including metalwork and illumination. According to Giraldus, “The interlaced work and the harmony of the colors left the impression that all this is the work of angelic, and not human skill.”

Dr. Newell’s latest book, “Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul” devotes an entire chapter to discussing St. Brigit’s love of the earth. “She reveals the sacredness of the feminine, models female leadership, inspires poets and musicians, midwifes at new beginnings, and extravagantly embodies compassion and boundless generosity towards the poor.”

Columba — Founder of the Abbey on Iona, Scotland

Columba (521–597 A.D.) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is today Scotland. Columba studied under some of Ireland’s most prominent church figures and founded several monasteries in the country before migrating to Scotland. He founded the important Abbey on Iona, which became a dominant religious and political institution for centuries.

Columba’s love of creation are reflected in his prayers which “connect him to a spirituality that was intensely aware of the earth, sea and sky. The stories about Columba convey a commitment to Christ and at the same time a willingness to accept traditional Irish culture and religion as precursors to the gospel,” explains Newell.

“It seems that the Island of Iona was, like Brigit’s Kildare, was a pre-Christian holy site transformed into a center of Christian mission.”

In the sixth century there was a great missionary expansion from Iona and other Celtic monastic sites — from Scotland to Britain to as far as Russia. Columba traveled to Rome, but his teachings aroused much opposition because they reflected those of Pelagius.

“As the Celtic mission moved south, the Roman mission began to move north,” writes Newell. The 200-year separation of the two missions came to an end when Augustine of Canterbury began his mission to Britain in 597 A.D.

By the late 6th century the Roman church became increasingly uniform — with its emphasis upon human depravity, celibacy laws for the priesthood and separation of men and women in church.

In contrast, the Celtic church grew in emphasis on the goodness of creation, the clergy were allowed to marry, less distinction between religious leaders and lay leaders and women held positions of leadership in church.

In 664 A.D. the Synod of Whitby voted in favor of the Roman church and rejected the Celtic perspectives which led to the gradual decline of Celtic monasteries, with the Abbey of Iona serving as the center of resistance for the next 200 years.

“The great tragedy of the Synod of Whitby is that neither the Peter tradition nor the John tradition should have been displaced. Each represents a way of seeing firmly rooted in the gospel tradition,” writes Newell.

John Scotus Eriugena — Christ’s Two Shoes- Creation & Scripture

John Scotus Eriugena (815–877 A.D.) also know as John the Scot, was an Irish philosopher, theologian and poet who was considered one of the greatest Celtic teachers and is referred to by historians as the most astonishing person of the ninth century.

“Eriugena taught that Christ moves among us in two shoes — one shoe being that of creation, the other that of the Scriptures — and that we need to be attentive to both,” says Newell.

“In his homilies on the prologue of St. John’s gospel, Eriugena tells us that God is in all things, the essence of life; God has not created everything out of nothing, but out of his own essence, out of his very life. This is the light that is in all things…the light of the created universe, the light indeed of all visible and invisible existence,” writes Newell.

“Eriugena is generally recognized to be the most outstanding philosopher (in terms of originality) of the era…His cosmological speculations appear too conceptually advanced for the philosophers and theologians of his time, and his philosophical system was generally neglected in the tenth and eleventh centuries. His main work, Periphyseon, was revived by the twelfth-century,” reports Stanford.edu.

In Periphyseon, Eriguena furthers the deeply held Celtic belief in the essential goodness of creation. “He insisted that nothing in nature is evil in itself. That is, all creation bears within us, however covered over it may be, the essential goodness of God. If we become evil, we are acting contrary to our essential nature,” explains Newell.

“What has been lost,” writes Eriugena, “is the true beholding of the light from the inner eyes.” Newell explains, “The grace of Christ, restores us to our original simplicity. Everything that is divided is reunited, whether the division is between heaven and earth, between the visible and invisible or between male and female.”

Similar to Pelagius, Eriugena’s providential view of the essential goodness of all creation and mankind came under attack by the Roman church. He was accused of promoting “pantheism” — the belief that everything is God. However, as Newell explains, “A more accurate term to describe their perspective is “panentheism” — the belief that ‘God is in all things.’”

“God is not just saving people; God is saving all of creation,” clarifies Richard Rohr…“We could call it the primordial ‘Christification’ or anointing of the universe at Creation. This is not pantheism (God is everything), but panentheism (God is in everything!). Such a central message of cosmic incarnation was never seriously taught in the Western, overly individualistic church, except by a few like Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), Francis of Assisi (1181–1226), and Bonaventure (1221–1274).”

Inspired by the contemporary mystic scientist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Franciscan sister and scientist Ilia Delio writes: “Christ invests himself organically within all creation, immersing himself in things, in the heart of matter, and thus unifying the world. The universe is physically impregnated to the very core of its matter by the influence of his superhuman nature.”

By rejecting the Celtic perspective on the goodness of the universe, creation and mankind we have seen how irrelevant the mainstream church now appears to our hurting world.

Stay tuned, In Part 3 we will cover the turbulent and violent dispersion of the Celts during the Middle Ages, but primarily focus on the post-Reformation Celtic leaders from the 19th and 20th Century — Scottish theologian John Alexander Scott (1805–1866) , Scottish author, poet and minister George MacDonald (1824–1905) and Church of Scotland minister and social reformer George MacLeod (1895–1991).