The Celtic Way

 I think I might be a Celt in my heart. I really enjoyed most of this book. Some parts dragged a bit, but I came with some great takeaways. Here are two takeaways: 

1) The two themes of presence and protection are the two distinctive features of Celtic Christianity. It was about the immanence of God (think of St. Patrick’s Breastplate) as opposed to the Roman Catholic and the Protestant West’s tendency to emphasize God’s transcendence – his omnipotence and remoteness from the world. Along with this was their close connection with nature. The immanent God dwells in this world as well as above and beyond it (p. 32). Interesting to note that one of my all-time favorite poets is George Herbert, and the author makes a point of saying that his poetry is in the Celtic tradition and “his desire to be taught to see God in all things” (p. 112). Maybe this is why I connect so much with Celtic spirituality (but Ignatius is the person who taught me the most about “seeing God in all things”).

2) Their emphasis is ongoing into a pagan society and finding God in the culture rather than trying to change it! . 

“Celtic Christian missionaries had a wholly different attitude towards those with whom they were seeking to share the light of Christ. For them evangelism was more a matter of liberating and releasing the divine spark which was already there in every person than of imposing a new external creed. They did not see the primal pagan religion of the people as a threat to Christianity or a dangerous heresy to be eliminated. Rather it represented, however imperfectly, a stirring of the spiritual and a reaching the eternal. With imagination and with faith many of its central features and symbols – the standing stones, the sacred groves and springs, the power of circles, the poems, runes and chants – could be baptized and incorporated into Christian worship and witness” (p. 94).