Rediscovering the Celts Book

The influence of the Celts on Britain's religious heritage is often romanticised and glorified--or else completely ignored. In this well-researched book, Martin Robinson treads a common-sense middle path. Rediscovering the Celts is subtitled "The true witness from Western shores". Christianity was in Ireland before Patrick began his ministry; probably in 432 AD, there were Christians of a non-Roman variety already there. Similarly, Augustine of Canterbury arrived in Britain in 597 AD, and found (in the words of Bede) that he could not "obtain the compliance of the Britons, who stubbornly preferred their own customs to those in universal use among Christian Churches". Celtic Christians had their own ways of doing things, and did not take well to the imposition of Roman ways.Celtic Christianity was focused more on monasteries than on the hierarchy of bishops; it was more about spirituality than about power. Robinson tells the story illustrated with fascinating accounts of Celtic saints--it is not so much the often told and idealised tale of an earlier, purer version of Christianity that was stamped out by Rome's authoritarianism, but more of a group of dedicated believers with a diversity of practices, who over several centuries evangelised much of Britain. What can we learn from Celtic Christianity? Robinson suggests we can draw on "the affirmation of women and the feminine, the embrace of the natural world, an identification with the poor, the inclusion of laity in the monastic life, and the positive place of the arts in community life." An enjoyable and informative book. --David V BarrettRead More