Trinity College, Bristol and Bristol Baptist College
ESSAY COVER SHEET

Please complete this form, staple it to your assignment and hand it in to the Academic and Practical Training Office on or before the published deadline. Essays should also be submitted electronically via Moodle in most cases.

“In our spiritual roots of Christian faith in these lands we have this sensitive, powerful, community based, care free mission church. Perhaps this church, more than any other, discovered what God has truly given to these lands, a missionary responsibility that is not to do with the imposition of Western Culture and manipulation, but with a humble, foolish abandonment to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus.”[1]

Celtic Christianity, tradition and history, is acknowledged as the first Christian Church outside the

Holy Land. Since Celtic Christianity was established prior to the first century it is classified as pre-

Nicene . Christianity from that period, is sometimes referred to as "primitive” Christianity. [2]

In his day, Julius Caesar noted that the entire Gallic nation was very religious.[3] Of course, he was

speaking about pagan Celts, but a deep religiosity has been a characteristic of the Celts in general

over the centuries, and especially during the Christian era. Alexander Carmichael (1832-1912) , who

collected folklore in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland during the nineteenth century, is another,

more recent witness to the deep religiosity of the Celts. He observed that the music of their hymns

had a distinct individuality, which resembled, but was clearly distinct from, the old Gregorian

chants of the Church. He ventured the opinion that this peculiar and beautiful music was that of the

old Celtic Church.[4]

The term `Celtic Church’ is used to describe almost the earliest native form of Christianity in the

islands of Britain and Ireland, it dates from around 400 AD. The Celtic Church established itself as

the most successful evangelistic movement Britain has ever seen with people like Ninian, the first

known evangelist in Scotland, Patrick, a Scot who evangelised Ireland, Columba, an Irishman who

led many in Scotland to Christ.[5]

Inspired by the Desert Fathers and the monastic movement through Martin of Tours, the Celts

established monasteries as communities of worship, prayer and learning and service.
The Celtic Church was not a monolithic organisational hierarchy; because of this, some historians

have doubted whether we can even talk about one Celtic Church, since it had no central control.

However, it’s clear to see a line of descent from Ninian through Patrick and Columba to Aidan and

the Evangelists of Lindisfarne, [6]even though there may be differences in practice as the church

adapted to different cultural patterns around it.

The Celtic Church had no parish system. Instead, believers gathered into communities, usually

around leading teachers and gifted men, such as Columba, . A common term for these communities

was muinntir (pronounced mine-cheer), meaning people of an extended family, with their leader

being called the Ab or father (as later, Abbot).[7]

The Celtic church celebrated grace and nature as good gifts from God and recognised the sacredness

of all creation. It had a love of mysticism and poetry, a deep respect for the feminine, included

women in its leadership and allowed clerical marriages. The Celtic understanding of church

leadership was rooted in its rural and agricultural communal culture, and the great Celtic

monasteries emerged from this tribal system. Although the abbots were generally not ordained, the

leadership and power in the Celtic church, lay with the abbots of the monasteries.

As well as the monks and nuns of these communities, bishops were appointed, to oversee the

spiritual welfare of the Church. But they were not seen as princes of the Church; rather, they were

seen as servants, known for their humility and self-sacrifice[8]. And when they were in the

community, they were subject to the Ab, as the rest were.
Members of a muinntir were encouraged to form close relationships with someone to whom they

could be accountable and with whom they could pray and share their hearts ; these were known as

anam-chara (soul-friend), and gave great strength to the communities. [9]

Because of the clear Biblical mandate to go into all the world and make disciples, missionary

outreach was seen by Celtic Christians as a vital element in their search for the Holy. So, the 5th and

6th centuries were marked by large-scale conversions in Ireland and Britain, as Celtic converts who

were usually monks spread Christianity. Martyrdom for the Christian faith was almost unknown

because the Celtic approach to evangelism was peaceful and without bloodshed. [10]By the beginning

of the 6th century, Celtic Christianity was wholly monastic in its structure. But, because there was

no central organising force, there was considerable variation in liturgical practises and monastic

rules.

The power-house of the Celtic Church and mission was their commitment to a life of prayer and

fasting. The written prayers we have from their era indicate a strong devotion to the Trinity and a

constant invocation of God’s powerful presence.

Contemplative prayer was a common experience among Celtic believers; that is, prayer which

listened, which waited for God rather than constantly bringing requests to Him. Fasting was

regularly practised twice a week, on Wednesday and Friday, from rising until the afternoon time for

prayer[11]. There was no great legalism attached to the practice, which was broken if guests were

being entertained or if physical need required.

This lifestyle, then, was the source and engine of the dynamic outreach which the Celtic Church

undertook.

The Celtic evangelists began with the understanding that this was God's world and it was good. They believed in Christ as the head of all creation and the head of the new creation. It came naturally to take the positive aspects of culture and "baptise them", even at the risk of sometimes combining different beliefs or principles. Wells with healing qualities were used for baptism, Druidic temples became churches and standing stones became preaching points. [12] The Celtic evangelists challenged negative view of the culture and invited the Celts to enter the cultural meeting points, employ the cultural symbols and media and see the positive potential of what God is doing.

"The Celtic Church did not so much seek to bring Christ as to discover him: not to possess him, but to see him in 'friend and stranger'; to liberate the Christ who is already there in all his riches." [13]

To win the culture, they first had to win the culture shapers. For the Celts that meant winning the tribal kings, [14] be it Ninian with Tuduvallus or Aidan with Oswald.

The Celtic Way is their everyday spirituality; the blessing of the fire and the cow, the prayer for the

weaving and the milking.[15] God was the God of the everyday. Incarnation was a daily experience

not a theological concept. In a society of spiritual search, the Celtic Way of lifting the everyday to

God, the way of the Caim, is a very accessible way for people to pray. [16]The "caim" was the

encircling prayer by which the Celts affirmed the presence of God with him in the circle. In other

words, wherever he walked, God was with him, a reminder of God's presence and protection. [17]

The Celtic mission was unstoppable in its zeal and fervour; monks would travel, on foot, or across

seas in small leather coracles, to find those who had not yet heard the good news of Jesus Christ.

They preached to Kings and Chieftains without fear, and saw them turn to Christ, and open the

doors for the gospel to their peoples. ( At Bamburgh, in Northumbria, King Oswald translated into

Anglo-Saxon for the Gaelic-speaking Aidan when he first arrived from Iona.)

The missionaries were not just preaching, either, but powerfully demonstrating, often against pagan

occult powers, the authority of Jesus’ name. So at the court of King Brude of the Picts, near

Inverness, Columba was pitted against the evil druid Briochan, who called up a storm to engulf

Columba’s boat; Columba showed God’s power by sailing into the storm and through it, convincing

the onlookers of the power of God to deliver His people.

The way the Celts carried out mission is perhaps best demonstrated by the methods and person of

St. Patrick as he began the evangelisation of Ireland. Patrick was an aristocratic Briton and was

reared in a heavily Romanized settlement in what is today North east England[18] . As a young man he

was kidnapped and sold as a slave to a wealthy druid in Ireland. Patrick decided early in his

mission, to return to the place where he had once lived as a slave. It was those years as a slave that

enabled him to understand the ways of the Irish Celts many years later as the newly appointed

missionary bishop to Ireland. From this position Patrick and his companions brought the Gospel

message to Ireland using methods similar to those that would later be used by the Irish at an even

grander scale to send missionary movements throughout the British Isles and Europe.

“Be amazed, you great and small who fear God, and you men of God, eloquent speakers, listen and contemplate. Who was it summoned me, a fool, from the midst of those who appear wise and learned in the law and powerful in rhetoric and in all things? Me, truly wretched in this world, he inspired before others that I could be — if I would — such a one who, with fear and reverence, and faithfully, without complaint, would come to the people to whom the love of Christ brought me and gave me in my lifetime, if I should be worthy, to serve them truly and with humility”.[19]
One aspect of Patrick’s approach to evangelism is the way in which he and his band of evangelists

physically entered and encountered a Celtic tribe. Rather than entering with the expectation of

conquering, Patrick approached the Celts humbly, asking permission to establish a community

alongside that of the Celtic tribe in question. They would then live among the tribe and take up their

language and many of their ways and customs, becoming a part of the community in order that they

might be in a better position to love and serve them and communicate the Gospel. [20]
The ways in which Patrick and his companions communicated the Gospel is perhaps the most

important lesson of the Celtic Christian missionary movement: they did not seek to civilize the Irish

so that they might become more like Romans, nor did they demand that the Irish do church the same

way that the imperial church did,[21] rather they knew the Irish people and their culture well enough

to imagine the ways in which they might do church, and sought to convert them, not from Celts to

Roman Christians, but from Celts to Celtic Christians. He used the Celts’ love for paradox and

rhetorical triads to dazzle them with the doctrine of the Trinity[22] , and for their love of nature he

showed them the Christian God of Creation. Thus the Gospel was communicated, not as a set of

distant abstract truths that must be believed a certain way, but rather it was shown to the Celts in

such a way that it likely felt custom tailored to them. Patrick, and later the Irish Celts themselves,

seemed to hold that the Gospel is universally true and significant for everyone, but the way it will

be understood is very likely to be particular and individual to a person or culture.

Celtic Christians had a respect for the beliefs of others. They lived alongside people, modelling and

living what they taught. They examined local culture, using the gift of discernment, opposed the bad

and blessed the good. St. Patrick found that where Christians worshipped one God, the Celts

worshipped many and had found divinity all around them. Instead of imposing a foreign culture on

these people with a foreign religion, he helped them understand that the divinity that they saw all

around them was the divinity of God.[23]

Saint Ninian, was the first apostle of Christianity in Scotland. He was born in Cumbria of Christian parents c. 360 and was educated in Rome. He became a priest and was ordained a bishop, probably by Pope Siricius, after which he was sent to evangelize Scotland. He landed there in 397 at Whithorn near Solway Firth, where he built a stone cathedral called Candida Casa. Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People mentioned that the southern Picts who lived in the Grampians had left behind their idolatry long ago for the true faith. This was due to the preaching of St Ninian. “A most reverend Bishop and Holy man of the nation of the britons”. Bede goes onto mention a few times that Ninian was instructed in Rome to make it clear that Ninian had none of the strange ways of the monks who came later. [24] Candida Casa became an important centre for missionary work. Bede's assertion that Ninian converted the Picts of the North is supported by the existence of cross slabs across the whole of Scotland. It has even been suggested that Ninian made it as far north as the Shetland Islands.[25] It was the monastic model which was used by Ninian where St Patrick was trained. One can only surmise but it is highly likely that Ninian used the same model for evangelism that Patrick employed. It was in the English Monasteries that Patrick received his training.[26]
One of the more notable spiritual "grandsons" of Patrick was Columba (known in Ireland by his
Celtic name, Colum Cille). He was born in Donegal, northern Ireland, about sixty years after Patrick's death. A descendant of Irish kings, he apparently belonged to the same clan as Milchu, Patrick's former master. Growing up, Columba followed various monastic leaders including a priest called Finnian of Moville. Finnian of Moville has studied at Ninians monastery Candida Casa. Despite his privileged background Columba chose to renounce rank, power, and wealth to live in poverty as a eunuch for Christ. [27]He toiled among his fellow Irishmen for nineteen years, preaching the Gospel and founding numerous religious communities. In fact, for several years, he served as the head of one of the spiritual communities founded by Patrick. Again we can see how a very influential evangelist within the Celtic tradition worked and lived along side the Pagan peoples that they had come to serve.

In conclusion, I would surmise that the reason the Celtic Church was responsible for the greatest

evangelism this country has seen, was down to it's complete simplicity. The Missionaries did not

attempt to impose a foreign culture on the people they had come to see, as they would not have

understood it. Therefore the Celts would have rejected what the missionaries had come to teach.

They explained God and Jesus in a way that the Celtic people could understand and relate to. They

held religious ceremonies in the same laces the Pagans had done. This also I believe was to put the

local people at ease. They lived along side the people they had come to evangelise, not to condemn

them but to understand and to teach them a new way at looking into the world they already

understood. They set up health care, education and looked after the poor. They were in fact some of

the first Social activists. They were inclusive and not exclusive, as later models of Christianity

seemed to become. They believed that Jesus was the fulfilment of the highest and best aspirations

and religious search of the culture around them. God was in everything, all around them, and

everywhere they looked. This was something the Celtic people understood, and consequently

believed.
Bibliography.

Mitton, M, 1995, Restoring the Woven Cord, Darton ,Longman and Todd.

Latourette, K. 1970. A History of The Expansion of Christianity, Volume 1 The First Five Centuries. Zondervan

Bauerov, A. 1988, Zlaty vek zeme Bju [The Golden Age of the Land of Boii] Prague

Carmichael, A. 1997, Carmina Gadelica [Gaelic Poetry] Edinburgh.

Simpson, R. 1995, Exploring Celtic Spirituality, Hodder & Stoughton.

Mackey, J. 1989, An Introduction to Celtic Christianity, T&T Clark, Edinburgh.

Meek, D,. 2000, The Quest for Celtic Christianity, The Handsel Press Ltd.

Finney, J. 1996, Recovering the Past: The Celtic and Roman Mission, DLT.

Bradley, I. 1993, The Celtic Way, DLT.

Waal, E. 2003, The Celtic way of Prayer, Hodder & Stoughton, London.

Hunter, G. 2000. The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity can Reach the West … Again. Abington Press, Nashville.

Saint Patrick 452. BC The Confession Including quotes from the translation by John Skinner in The Confession of St. Patrick (1998).

Sampson, F. 2007, Visions and Voyages, The story of Celtic Spirituality, Lion Hudson Plc

O'Donohue, J. 1997,Spiritual Wisdom From the Celtic World, Bantam Books.

Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Olsen, T. 2003 Christianity and the Celts, Lion Histories.

Other Reading.

Foster, J. 1965, They Converted Our Ancestors. SCM Press Ltd. London.

A Celtic Miscellany, 1977, Translated by Jackson, K. H. Penguin Books Ltd. Middlesex.

---------------------------------
[ 1 ]. Mitton, M, 1995, p2.
[ 2 ]. Latourette, K. 1970. p172.
[ 3 ]. Bauerov, A. 1988, p. 182. [The name "Bohemia" is derived from a Celtic tribe called the Boii—Authors note.].
[ 4 ]. Carmichael, A. 1997, Carmina Gadelica [Gaelic Poetry] Edinburgh, p. 29.
[ 5 ]. Simpson, R. 1995, P54.
[ 6 ]. Simpson, R. 1995, p54
[ 7 ]. Mackey, J. 1989. p31
[ 8 ]. Meek, D,. 2000. P139.
[ 9 ]. Simpson, R. 1995, p39
[ 10 ]. Simpson, R. 1995, p113
[ 11 ]. Meek, Donald,. 2000, p174.
[ 12 ]. Finney, J. 1996, p29 He tells of Columba's arrival on Iona in 563: "It was already a pagan holy place and many of the standing stones there are pre-Christian megaliths which have been baptised into Christ by having a fish or chi-ro symbol carved on them. Columba built a monastery on the site of the pagan temple."
[ 13 ]. Bradley, I. 1993, p75, quoting David Adam .
[ 14 ]. Finney, J. 1996, p100.
[ 15 ]. Waal, E. 2003, p3.
[ 16 ]. Simpson, R. 1995, p54.
[ 17 ]. Bradley, I. 1993, p32. "In his book, Paths in Spirituality, Professor John Macquarrie identifies the key feature of Celtic spirituality as an 'intense sense of presence'. He goes on to observe that 'the Celt was very much a God-intoxicated man, whose life was embraced on all sides by the Divine being'
[ 18 ]. Hunter, G. 2000. p13.
[ 19 ]. Saint Patrick 452. BC
[ 20 ]. Hunter, G. 2000 p9.
[ 21 ]. Sampson, F. 2007, p51.
[ 22 ]. Hunter, G. 2000, p20.
[ 23 ]. O'Donohue, J. 1997, p76.
[ 24 ]. Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
[ 25 ]. Bradley, I. 1993, p11.
[ 26 ]. Sampson, F. 2007, P50.
[ 27 ]. Olsen, T. 2003, P104.