Customer Reviews

Where Three Streams Meet: Celtic Spirituality

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Sean O Duinn is a monk of Glenstal Abbey and a lecturer on Irish heritage at the University of Limerick; this book presents his lovely and poetic vision of how Irish spirituality represents an weaving together of neolithic, pagan, and Christian traditions (hence the "three streams" of the title). The book begins with chapters devoted to teasing out the elusive identity of the Celtic world, as the author considers lifestyle, customs, politics, ancestor-worship, and the gods and goddesses of the ancient Celts. His chapter on neart is especially illuminating and important for anyone interested in magical, shamanic, or healing dimensions of Celtic wisdom. From there O Duinn goes on to consider specifically Christian dimensions of Celtic spirituality, looking at Irish understandings of the Easter Mystery (and its relation to Bealtaine), traditional Gaelic prayers and intercession for the dead, and the intersection points between the cycles of nature, the Celtic sacred year, and the Christian liturgical calendar. It's a wonderful book that demonstrates how a thoroughly Christian sensibility can coexist symbiotically with the rich nature mysticism of the Celtic world. Highly recommended.

I am very interested in the Celtic form of Christianity that evolved in Ireland, which was nearly wiped out through pressure from the more centralized, paternalistic, authoritarian version of Christianity in Rome. To me, this "Celtic Christianity" is the perfect combination of pagan reverence for the earth, tribal focus on the community blended with the spiritual enlightenment of core Christian teaching. Also, there was a respect and reverence for women that for all practical purposes disappeared when the Church in Rome asserted it's power. This book not only goes through all that but does it in a very in depth way explaining the history of the Celts throughout Europe. My favorite item in this book is the description of the Celtic version of the Virgin Mary. She is referred to as the "wild, Celtic Mary gone mad with grief at the terrible death of her son..." painting a picture of a Mary in bare feet with hair undone in the style of a grieving, ancient Irish woman. In contrast to the more controlled, pristine Roman version of the mother of Jesus, the "Celtic Mary" seems like a very authentic version of Mary and that is the way I shall picture her from now on. As a mother it rings true.

I started reading this book after my daughter came back from a class with Father Sean in Ireland. We are not Christian, we are Irish Pagans. My family still hold a lot of the beliefs that are described in this book. Father Sean has skillfully and beautifully highlights the transcendent ideas of Celtic religious thinking. He has been able to explain how the Celtic peoples were very religious and their ideas about spirituality have been passed down through Irish Catholicism. I am grateful for this scholarly work and hope to read more from Father Sean.