"Our God is the God of Heaven and Earth, of sea and river, of sun and moon and stars, of the lofty mountain and lowly valley." -- St. Patrick These words are perhaps the epitome of the Celtic monk's holy embrace of nature and sense of "ecology." Everywhere in Celtic Ireland, on rocky promontories and lonely hillsides, in hermitages and monasteries, we find a holy intimacy of human, natural, and divine. In this anthology, the stories of the Celtic saints are interspersed with verses, prayers, and sayings attributed to those ancient sages -- from Patrick and Brigit, through Brendan and Columba, to Aidan and Cuthbert. It is uncertain when or how Christianity first arrived at those westernmost reaches. It seems always to have been there. Legend tells us that Irish bards attended the events on Golgotha "in the spirit." In the Celtic tradition there is a continuity in cosmic process. For the Celt, Christ's death and resurrection was a healing that allows a reconciliation between humanity and nature in God. In this sense, Christianity was always in Ireland, and we seek its historical beginning in vain. If the Celtic Church had survived, perhaps the fissure between Christianity and nature, widening through the centuries, would never have fragmented our Western attitude toward nature and the universe.
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"Almost as good as another visit to Iona." -- Owen Barfield, author of "History in English Words" and "Saving the Appearances"
"It is, indeed, a treasure of an anthology, and I will enjoy dipping into it over and over again." -- Madeleine L'Engle, author of "A Wrinkle in Time"
"It is, indeed, a treasure of an anthology, and I will enjoy dipping into it over and over again." -- Madeleine L'Engle, author of "A Wrinkle in Time"
About the Author
Christopher Bamford works as editor-in-chief of Anthroposophic Press and Lindisfarne Books. A Fellow of the Lindisfarne Association, he has lectured and taught widely. He writes frequently on Western spiritual and esoteric traditions for Lapis, Gnosis, Parabola, and Sphinx. He is the author / translator / editor of numerous books, some of which are represented on this page. An essay he wrote on death and dying will be part of Harper's prestigious annual Best Spiritual Writing of 2000.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Beginner's Guide,
This review is from: Celtic Christianity (Paperback)
The title of this book is somewhat misleading. I expected to find an argument about how members of the Celtic Church were card carrying members of the Green Party but not so!
Instead what one finds is a useful essay which details some of the main features of the Celtic Church. There is nature, education, learning, science, poetry, and the arts. The rest of the book is an anthology of which introduces the reader to fourteen Celtic saints, some better known than others including; Patrick, Brigit, Findian, Senan, Brendan, Kevin, Ciaran, Mochudan, Columba, Columbanus, Gall, Fursey, Aidan and Cuthbert. This is a great introduction to Celtic Christianity, and the perfect kind of book to keep on the nightstand, so that you can dip into it each night before you go to sleep, flip through its pages, and learn something new about a great tradition, and great compliment to Latin Christianity. For a longer review and discussion about Celtic Christianity and Spirituality, check out [...]
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
a good miscellany,
This review is from: Celtic Christianity (Paperback)
This little anthology offers a good introduction to the Celtic saints through a combination of sketches of their lives, excerpts from the writings of the saints themselves (stories and prayers), stories about them by commentators such as Bede and others, and many prayers from the Carmina Gaedelica and other sources. The introduction treats of the early Christian history of the British isles. It would make a good first read in this area, and thus would be a great gift for birthdays, graduations, and other holidays. It has a durable cover for lots of handling, and it should be handled often!
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Christians of all persuasions have always loved the saints of the Celtic Church and the traditions of sanctity, learning and stewardship for which they stood; and the Celtic or, as it is also called, the British Church has always represented an ideal for those who have known of it, and not simply as a Golden Age of innocence and purity which, in the words of Nora Chadwick, has "never been surpassed and perhaps been equalled only by the ascetics of the eastern deserts," but also, and more importantly, as an alternative seed, "a light from the west," perhaps obscure and even alien, but nevertheless powerful and true with the kind of reality we seem to need today. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
saith the angel, been tormented Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Celtic Church, Inis Cathaig, Book of Lismore, Holy Ghost, Irish Tradition, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Bishop Mel, Coming of the Saints, Pangur Ban, Saint Brigit, Tree of Life New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Christians of all persuasions have always loved the saints of the Celtic Church and the traditions of sanctity, learning and stewardship for which they stood; and the Celtic or, as it is also called, the British Church has always represented an ideal for those who have known of it, and not simply as a Golden Age of innocence and purity which, in the words of Nora Chadwick, has "never been surpassed and perhaps been equalled only by the ascetics of the eastern deserts," but also, and more importantly, as an alternative seed, "a light from the west," perhaps obscure and even alien, but nevertheless powerful and true with the kind of reality we seem to need today. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
saith the angel, been tormented Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Celtic Church, Inis Cathaig, Book of Lismore, Holy Ghost, Irish Tradition, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Bishop Mel, Coming of the Saints, Pangur Ban, Saint Brigit, Tree of Life New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 25
books:
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29
books
cite this book:
See all 29 books citing this book
- The Life of Columba by Geoff Green on page 29, page 35, and page 105
- COLL POEMS (Salt Modern Poets S.) by Andrew Taylor on page 35, and Back Matter
- The Irish Tradition by Robin Flower on page 35, and Back Matter
- The Tree of Life by H. J. Massingham on page 35, and Back Matter
- Collected Poems by Thomas Wyatt on page 35, and Back Matter
See all 25 books this book cites
- A Celtic Model of Ministry: The Reawakening of Community Spirituality by Jerry C. Doherty on 6 pages
- Fire in the Head: Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit by Tom Cowan on 5 pages
- Celtic Christianity: A Sacred Tradition, a Vision of Hope by Timothy J. Joyce in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Voice of the Eagle: The Heart of Celtic Christianity by Christopher Bamford in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Front Matter (3)
- Mysterious World: Ireland by Ian Middleton on page 227, page 248, and page 249
See all 29 books citing this book
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