The Celtic Church in Britain [Paperback]

Leslie Hardinge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1995

A most fascinating and authoritative account of the Celtic Church, its beliefs and practices, and its remarkable theocracy based on Old Testament canon and the laws of the Pentateuch, including the keeping of the Seventh-day Sabbath. This book is illustrated with line drawings taken from the crosses which were a notable feature of Celtic church architecture, and with examples of documents of the period.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Leslie Hardinge was born in Calcutta, India, and was educated in England and America. He received his undergraduate degree from La Sierra University, Riverside, California, and then went on to earn three advanced degrees at the Adventist Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. and finally his Ph.D. degree from the University of London in 1964.

He began his ministerial career in the South England Conference in 1933, serving first as an intern and then pastor evangelist. Coming to America in 1947, Hardinge became a Bible teacher first at Union College, Lincoln Nebraska, and then in succeeding years Columbia Union College in Washington D.C. Newbold College in England and Pacific Union College, Angwin California.

During a hiatus from teaching from 1973 to 1977 he came to southern California to pastor the Glendale City church and then his focus returned to education when he became president of Adventist University of the Philippines (formerly Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Far East). At AUP he planned and built a library for the seminary and dedicated his personal library of almost 1,000 books to it.

Probably best known for producing audio tapes for the weekly Sabbath School lesson, a favorite of Sabbath School class teachers in many countries for some 28 years, Hardinge's teachings were distributed by The Spoken Word. An authority on the Isarelite Sancturary, he often said that if people could understand what happened in the sancturary, they would understand the relationship between God and man. Mr Hardinge, was married to Mary, and had one daughter Judy, three grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.

Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: TEACH Services, Inc. (June 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572580348
• ISBN-13: 978-1572580343
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,412,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and insightful, June 13, 2000

By 

Damon J. Casale (Seffner, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Celtic Church in Britain (Paperback)

It's rare that a historian will lay aside partisan, deeply held beliefs to render an accurate picture of early Christianity. Hardinge succeeds, inasmuch as the scant information on the Celtic church in Britain allows. One comment that struck me as particularly insightful was Hardinge's quote of a twelfth century Catholic biographer of an earlier Celtic saint. The biographer lamented that the "life of so priceless a prelate" should be tinged with heresy. So, he rewrote the story, seasoning "the barbarous composition with Roman salt." Even if this biographer was sincere (and it appears he was), he, like many others, clouded and obscured the little historical information that we do have access to.

Unfortunately, Hardinge does not spend any time researching some of the earlier records of Christian missionary work in Celtic Britain. "Christianity crept quietly into Britain," he says. Nothing could be further from the truth, as any reading of even Catholic historians such as Baronius will attest. Even if the records of Joseph of Arimathea's mission to Britain in 37 AD is considered legendary, Hardinge could have at least mentioned it. In fact, there's more evidence that Joseph of Arimathea went to Britain than that Columbus discovered America in 1492. Nevertheless, other books (such as "Drama of the Lost Disciples" by Jowett and "St. Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury" by Smithett-Lewis) more than make up for this lack. Hardinge definitely has his place among those who tirelessly searched out the dusty records of Christianity's passage through time. And, definitive or not, we owe him a debt of gratitude for his pioneering work in the early Medieval British Isles.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hardinge's research pays off..., March 8, 2000

By 

Kevin Patrick Byrne (Laguna Niguel, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Celtic Church in Britain (Paperback)

Through painstaking research, Mr. Hardinge has captured the ancient aspects of true Celtic Christianity. Much has been recently written about Celtic Christians and about the British Isles in general, but Mr. Hardinge's meticulous devotion to original sources and quotations from the ancient enemy of Celtic Christianity (Roman Catholicism) have served to give a highly accurate and engaging outline of how ancient Celtic Christians must have evangelized, preached, lived their lives, showed their devotion to God and generally defied Catholic authority during their time.

If its implications are understood correctly, this book will throw much of what goes as "church history" on its ear. Patrick a seventh-day Sabbath keeper? The ancient Celts defiant toward Augustine? True historians will take note of this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great historical thesis, October 15, 2010

By 

Patrick Dillon - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Celtic Church in Britain (Paperback)

I have read this book and am amazed at the amount of research put into this work. The author must have spent a huge amount of time in libraries and other places of reference to gather the excellent material in it's pages. Leslie Hardinge the author, was a Pastor at our Seventh-day Adventist Church here in Edinburgh, Scotland from 1942 and had access to first hand sources of information on the once great Celtic church. The keeping of the seventh day Sabbath, the dating of Easter and married clergy were among the major differences that seperated it from the Roman church. The Celtic churches influence and teachings reaching as far as the Ukraine in the east to Scandanavia in the north and south as far as Italy was a triumph of the gospel truth and sowing the seeds of the Reformation. The great Catholic saints of Patrick, Columba, Cuthbert, Aiden etc; were actually members of the Celtic church and had no relation to Rome - being hi-jacked by the Rome due to their inability to wipe them from history. It often bafffles me why Andrew became the Patron saint of Scotland and not Columba since he brought the gospel of Christ to these islands more than any other? Anyway heaven will reveal the truth to us one day I know. The excellent learning centres of Clonmacnoise and Clonfert in Ireland, Iona in Scotland and Lindisfarne in England being the best of their kind in Europe are also mentioned and their subsequent demise and takeover by the various Benidictine orders. A sad story maybe but triumphant in the end in the preservation of Christianity during the Dark ages. A real gem of a book.

Patrick Dillon
Edinburgh
Scotland