Celtic Christianity: A Sacred Tradition, a Vision of Hope [Paperback]

Timothy J. Joyce (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Orbis Books (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570751765
• ISBN-13: 978-1570751769
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #453,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of History, But..., February 28, 2003

By 

C. Ryan (Winthrop, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Celtic Christianity: A Sacred Tradition, a Vision of Hope (Paperback)

The cover blurb of this short book by an American Benedictine monk promises Celtic Spirituality "introduces a mysterious and extraordinary spiritual world (that) developed among the Celtic peoples sixteen centuries ago." Fr. Timothy's book tells something of pre-Christian and early-Christian Celtic social structure, customs and worldview and provides a few examples of Celtic prayers. But this book is primarily the HISTORY (i.e., names, dates, administrative structure) of Christian institutions in Celtic lands and not an exploration of Celtic Christian beliefs and practice or, more specifically, how those beliefs and practices shaped the Celtic people before they came under Norman and English domination.

Fr. Timothy emphasizes that Ireland was the only early-Christian culture in Western Europe never controlled by the Roman Empire. The Celtic Church, while strictly Trinitarian in belief, celebrated God's gifts of nature and humanity in a relatively non-legalistic manner. Then he recounts the history of the Roman church eventually dominating the native Irish, until the 1840s Potato Famine horror destroyed both the economy and any remaining traditional Celtic social structure and laid mid-Nineteenth Century legalistic, conservative, hierarchical Roman Catholicism over impoverished, dysfunctional Irish families. Fr. Timothy asserts the result, today's image of "Irish Catholic", is a foreign, inauthentic Irish Christianity far removed from its Celtic roots.

All of that may be true and interesting, but I finished the book still not knowing exactly what Celtic Christianity is and how, other than making pilgrimages to contemporary retreat centers scattered through Ireland and Britain, one might pursue modern day Celtic spirituality.

Although Ireland's lack of Roman domination is mentioned several times and Fr. Timothy mentions Eastern Orthodox Christianity in passing a couple of times, his Roman Catholic-centered world view never lets him, if you'll allow me a newly popular but already overused phrase, connect the dots. Since St. Patrick and his peers brought Christianity to the Celts at a time, around 400 AD, when all Christians were still "Orthodox" and other books demonstrate direct connections between the Celtic Church and the Eastern Christian monasteries of the Desert Fathers, it seems logical to conclude that Celtic Christianity was the local version of what still lives on as Eastern Orthodoxy.

There is a fairly long bibliography (virtually all for books published in the 1990s) and a list of organizations sponsoring Celtic retreats, revival, etc. (although not a single Internet address is provided). A few black and white photo reproductions are unremarkable.

I enjoyed reading Celtic Spirituality, and recommend it as a short history of Christian Church administration in Celtic cultures but feel one needs to look elsewhere to learn more about Celtic (Orthodox) Christianity itself.

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Celtic Christianity a hope for Catholics today, October 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Celtic Christianity: A Sacred Tradition, a Vision of Hope (Paperback)

Timothy Joyce does readers an excellent service by introducing them to Christianity from the Celtic tradition, all the more so if they too, like himself, come from an inherited Irish Catholicism that they have been trying to come to grips with in a rapidly changing world. He gives an overview of the Celtic culture and the spirituality of the Celtic peoples and their links with creation and the 'thin space' that was always a feature of Celtic peoples, made concrete through the ritual and ceremony of Druidic lore. He notes the early history of Christian mission through figures like Patrick, Bridgit, Columba and others and the development of Christianity that drew upon the wisdom and poetry of Celtic tradition in song and bardic verse. He then records the sad history of how the Roman or Euro-centric church with its nervous tendency to make everything uniform, influenced the church of Celtic Christians so that those of us who are of Irish Catholic descent have known little of the glory and freedom of the Celtic freshness for creation, for life, for love and commitment to the Gospel with the energy and whole-heartedness of those Celtic Christians. Joyce has a very readable style, in which he is unafraid to voice his own opinions which show a concern for certain fear-filled developments within the church today. 'Celtic Christianity' is not a great theological work, but I found it an excellent means to help me understand and integrate a part of my own heritage (New Zealand born Irish Catholic) that was full of mystery in tales of Fin McCool and leprechauns and, of course, St Patrick, and the fear of a law-bound, fearsome Catholic faith, one in which I am learning to understand the possibilities for hope and new life in the midst of a tendency for uniformity and centralising dominance afraid of the prophetic and poetic.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Adventure in Celtic Scholarship, December 3, 1999

By 

James Lynch (Springfield, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Celtic Christianity: A Sacred Tradition, a Vision of Hope (Paperback)

The Rev. Joyce offers us a well-reasearched, and scholarly analysis of the elements and factors which define Celtic Christianity. The thorough history of Christian worship as it developed primarily in Ireland allows the reader to virtually travel through time to gain a full understanding of the psyche of the Irish people, and how this has influenced (and has been influenced by) the parallel rise of European Christianity.

The author's writing style makes the work a bit more difficult than it might otherwise need to be, however. Much of the factual work is related to the reader in a somewhat cold style, thus requiring the reader to persevere. The basic thesis of the work could be stated more clearly in the introductory chapter, rather than summarized in the end.

Overall, a sound, non-judgemental treatment of a subject which each Christian should understand in order to fully appreciate the rich history and diversity of the Church.