Elements of Celtic Christianity

by Anthony Duncan

Provides a thought provoking examination of the spirit religion which flourished on the islands of Britain during the Dark Ages.

Genres: Christianity

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[E Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

too nebulous

[Pat Loughery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duncan's Celtic Christianity is a well-researched history of Celtic Christianity.

I particularly appreciated the discussion of Augustine's cultural context and the impact of a his own conversion experience and cultural context on his understanding of sin and the human body (which led to his doctrine of inherited sin, which fueled Calvinism's Total Depravity doctrine, ...)

[Abbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

TW:Anti Augustinianism
(this is a trigger warning to my review, not the book)

I enjoyed reading this book more than I expected to when I first started it.
There is a useful overview of the history of Celtic Christianity, most of which I have read before. I am collecting perspectives, so I am glad of it.
I think the book drifts and wanders a few times, which is fine really.

I love the perspective that the Druidic religion of the early Celts can be seen as their 'old testament' which is fulfilled in Christ, and this is the thread I am currently pulling.
I think Anthony Duncan has some great thoughts, but I also found him to be problematically dismissive sometimes, which unfortunately seems to be par for the course with most Christian theologians I have read on this topic recently (with the distinct exception of John Philip Newell).
Statements like "all the best parts" of the historic folk religion were brought with them into Christianity and redeemed. Even his use of the word redeemed, although I use it myself, feels somehow judgmental and superior in this book.
There is this implication that when the Irish Celts by and large accepted Christianity, they all moved happily and remorselessly into the new forms of religion, renaming their holy sites, allowing their holy days to be rebranded and their old Gods papered over with new mythology.

This rings very false, and I can't help but picture rural people mourning the changes to their ancient culture, unhappy at the idea of new names for old things, askance at the very idea of leaving behind the rituals they were raised with. An acknowledgement is needed that the bringing of a formalised Christianity into any culture comes with significant losses, spiritually and culturally.

My other qualm with Duncan is his treatment of Augustine and Pelagius.
The facts of their disagreement are hinted at rather than told plainly, and although Augustine is said to be in the wrong, Duncan repeatedly goes to great lengths to express admiration for him, saying over and over that he really was a good man, if misled, who added so very much to our church. Pelagius on the other hand gets a few short lines, in which Duncan says he was probably more or less in the right, but he obviously took things too far.

This upsets me greatly, and makes me feel as though the author is missing the point of the very subject he is attempting to teach.

Augustine needs no more apologists, and those who recognise his falsity ought to be braver about dismissing him.
Pelagius deserves far better than a swift dismissal, particularly in a book about Celtic spirituality, of which he is a father. To say he is right but he went too far reeks of the modern sentiment that I hear after every protest "of course they are right, but they are too extreme."
In my experience, if you genuinely believe in the message behind a protest, it is very uncommon that you will believe it to have been too extreme.
To think an action or a sentiment "too extreme" is to disagree about the severity of the issue. If you think something is of utmost importance, very little seems too far an action to get your point across.

Protest rant aside, I am upset by way that Anthony Duncan claims to be defending the anti-imperialism of the Celts, yet he places himself on the imperialist side of the Augustine/Pelagius argument, continuing to laud and promote the man upheld by the Roman colonizers and dismissing the radically loving Celt who dared to challenge the Roman exploitation of people and nature.

The real thing that bothers me is not so much that I have a different opinion to the author of this book, but that this being an overview of Celtic Christianity, it ought to have a more comprehensive description of what actually happened between A and P, yet if this was the first book I had picked up on the subject I would come away with no understanding of the significance Pelagius holds in the Celtic world, nor would I be in a position to decide for myself who was in the right, which feels important.

Overall a very good read. I learned some new things and saw some different perspectives on things I already knew about.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, short overview of the history of Christianity in the British Isles, and the differences between "Celtic Christianity" and the Roman/Augustinian version. I didn't like the writing style, but I learned a lot.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

High level overview. Some explanations would have been helpful to the reader not familiar with the history of Great Britain and Ireland. But there were some good insights into what Celtic Christianity was.

[Neo_classical · Rating 2 out of 5]

started with an interesting discussion on the infusion of Paganism with Christianity, but became a bizarre sycophantic attack on St Augustine and on Rome, unsurprising from an Anglican I suppose but totally absurd

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engaging insight into some of the history and culture of Celtic Christianity, this book contains some interesting ideas (e.g. the difference between the Western Church and the Celtic Church is the difference between an organisation and an organism), and some inspiring excerpts from prayers and Celtic writings. However, the book as a whole suffers from a rather patchy and haphazard account of the history of the Church, and a bias against the Western/Roman church, and particularly against St Augustine; although the last chapter attempts to correct this, and the author reminds us several times not to idealize or romanticize the Celtic tradition, that is what this book frequently seems to do. I was left wanting to find out more about this important part of Christian history and thinking, but also wanting a rather more coherent and balanced account.

[George Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this several times over almost a 30 year period and am amazed at how much more it speaks to me each time. It did not seem like much on first reading. It does not carry much weight as rigorous, devotional or inspirational. But there are aspects of each of these lying beneath its rather informal conversational sharing of ideas and feelings. And Duncan's core assertions resonate more deeply and urgently with me each time I read this book. As a spiritual being living out the remainder of the physical journey I have been given, I feel invited to engage more deeply in the glorious physical world of which I am but one small part. I suspect other readers will come away with other similar experience of a gentle invitation to go deeper.