Climbing Brandon: Science and Faith on Ireland's Holy Mountain [Hardcover]

Chet Raymo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2004

An acclaimed science writer celebrates an enduring symbol of Ireland’s Celtic past, Christian tradition, and love of nature

Mount Brandon is one of several holy mountains in Ireland that attract scores of believers and secular trekkers from around the world. For thirty-two years, Chet Raymo has lived part of each year on the Dingle Peninsula, near the foot of the mountain, and he has climbed it perhaps a hundred times, exploring paths that have been used for centuries by pilgrims in search of spiritual enlightenment. But the history and geography of Mount Brandon are what drew Raymo to it and offered him a lens through which to view the modern conflicts between science and religion.

When Ireland converted from paganism, it became home to a kind of Christianity that was unique in Europe—intensely intellectual yet attuned to nature, skeptical yet celebratory, grounded in the here-and-now yet open to infinity. In this rich celebration of Mount Brandon, Raymo weaves together myth and science, folklore and natural history, spiritual and physical geographies. He takes us to a time on the wave-lashed edge of the Western world when Mediterranean Christianity ran up against Celtic nature worship and the Irish—with their fondness for ambiguity, double meanings, puns and riddles—forged a fusion of knowledge and faith that sustains us today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In The Path, Raymo told the stories of the places he passes on his daily walk from his home in North Easton, Mass., to his workplace at Stonehill College. Here the former BostonGlobe science columnist treats us to a similar meditation on another locale he knows well: Mount Brandon, on the Dingle Peninsula in southwestern Ireland, where Raymo spends summer vacations. Brandon offers him an opportunity to explore "the nexus of several threads in Western thought-Celtic polytheism, Christian monotheism and scientific empiricism." He structures this intellectual journey by way of landmarks along the pilgrim path that ascends the holy Irish mountain. Vividly descriptive prose conveys a strong feeling of place and mood, as Raymo contemplates local geology, natural history and the interplay of climate and topography on the one hand and ancient Irish spirituality and literature on the other. Drawing on academic scholarship, Raymo introduces readers to such ancient seasonal festivals as Lughnasa, Somain and Bealtaine; to stories from Irish myth and folklore; to fragments of ancient Irish verse; and to biographies of Saint Brendan and Saint Patrick. Musing on the relation between scientific observation and what we call superstition, Raymo hovers at the thresholds where geology meets human history and pre-Christian Ireland meets contemporary Irish Catholicism, while dwelling on the significance of a God conceived of as immanent rather than transcendent. The result is an uplifting, though for some perhaps meandering, contemplation of Irish animistic traditions and the power of landscape in the land of "saints and scholars."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Mount Brandon is one of Ireland's highest and holiest mountains. Located in the far southwest, on the famous Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry, Brandon raises its gray head into seaside clouds. A pilgrim's path winding up the mountainside is traveled year-round by those searching for inspiration from nature and nature's creator. In late summer, near the Celtic feast of Lughnasa, the annual "pattern" of the area includes a ritual ascent of the mountain. In carefully wrought, short essays, philosopher and scientist Raymo uses his own decades-long knowledge of the mountain as a springboard for meditations on the juncture of science and spirituality. Raymo, longtime science columnist of the Boston Globe, shows how science, far from being in conflict with spirit, can inspire and illuminate the mystical mind. Not only for those interested in Ireland, this fine, short book should appeal to readers interested in earth spirituality as well. Patricia Monaghan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company; 1st edition, edition (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802714331
• ISBN-13: 978-0802714336
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,522,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Book doesn't quite deliver on promises still interesting, July 24, 2006

By 

Christina Lockstein "Christy's Book Blog" (Oconto Falls, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Climbing Brandon: Science and Faith on Ireland's Holy Mountain (Hardcover)

Climbing Brandon by Chet Raymo was a little bit of a disappointment to me. The last book I read by Raymo, Walking Zero, felt like being in a college science class with a great, enthusiastic instructor. This book just wasn't as engaging. While Raymo does a good job with his descriptions, they tend to be a bit dry. If ever a book called out for pictures or illustrations, this is it. I'm not familiar with all of the terms for parts of mountains so when he talks about a corrie or a moraine, I'm lost as to what I should be picturing in my mind. The book is supposed to trace Irish faith with the history of Mount Brandon, and I felt that Raymo wandered from that goal a bit often as well. He says over and over that the Celts infused their brand of Christianity with their naturalistic beliefs, but he never gives any examples of it. Ultimately it seems that the book is about Raymo's own search for faith and God, and I ended up feeling a little sad for him. He decries the belief in a transcendant God who answers intercessory prayer and cites double blind studies proving that it doesn't work. But then he offers prayer himself to a immanent God who exists in all of nature and is worth of praise and thanksgiving for the beauty of creation. Raymo is missing the most important part of God: the personal relationship and joy of talking to a God you know is listening. I get the opinion that Raymo isn't done with his search, and I hope that he finds what he's looking for.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Continuing the Search For Harmony Between Religion/Science, March 30, 2005

By 

Bugs "Patrick" (Los Angeles, Ca.) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Climbing Brandon: Science and Faith on Ireland's Holy Mountain (Hardcover)

Raymo does it again! As in his book: "Skeptics and True Believers", his continuing search for harmony between religion and science leading to universal admiration and awe of God's creation, he writes a compelling argument for removing the detritus of dogma and the sterility of science- not that easy for a person who was brought up on Catholicism and schooled in science (physics, astronomy) where he started to articulate his personal misgivings about strict dogma and contradictions.

Climbing Brandon was written at his part time home in Ireland on the Dingle Peninsula near the foot Mt Brandon where pilgrims/tourist come from all parts of the world to walk the paths and visit the contemplation centers of long passed saints and monks, i.e., St Patrick, Brendan, et al.

With geographical descriptions, especially those garnered from various view points in the surrounding mountains where past contemplatives meditated/prayed, poetical/prayerful/anecdotal/scholarly treatments of Irish/Celtic religious history, including numerous citations, this beautiful book comes off as part: Travel Guide (and watch out- after reading this book, one might be compelled to drop everything and go tour the region!), a crash course in Irish/Celtic cultural history (Paganism, Pantheism, Christianity, etc.), Religio/Science dissertation, etc.

The premise that God is in all and not the exclusive property of humans (anthropomorphism) is cited in an early Irish poem attributed to one of the "Milesian" princes, Amergin: "Song of Amergin" or "The Mystery". Think of everything that exists and the poem covers it- this is God. Same notion as in the sermon of St Columbanus which ends with: [Those who wish to know God, he says,] "must first review the natural world". This same notion is put forth with citations from: Thomas Berry , E.O. Wilson, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and many others. Thanks again to Chet Raymo for another beautiful, thought provoking book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Raymo's Best Yet, August 28, 2005

By 

Bruce Craig (Prince Edward Island, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Climbing Brandon: Science and Faith on Ireland's Holy Mountain (Hardcover)

I only recently reencountered the writings of Chet Raymo. For some number of years a first edition copy of HONEY FROM STONE has graced my bookshelf. This summer though I picked up a copy of NATURAL PRAYERS and THE SOUL OF THE NIGHT the latter of which was my favorite, that is until I read CLIMBING BRANDON.

For anyone with a passion for Raymo's dense yet wonderfully expressive writing style so reminescent of Loren Eiseley's best, for anyone captivated by the tensions posed by the mysteries of science and faith, and for all of us who are fascinated with things Celtic, you can't do better. This is a prayerful book -- there is no better companion to climb and discover the mysteries of Mount Brandon with than with Chet Raymo.
R. Bruce Craig