Celtic Theology: Humanity, World and God in Early Irish Writings

Rating:
Summary: eltic Faithand Practice
Review: I find Thomas O'Loughlin's handling of the material refreshing. I practice Celtic Orthodoxy everyday in my own life as a deacon serving in the Celtic Orthodox Christian Church (an Eastern Orthodox old calendarist jurisdiction using translations of the Stowe Missal and other liturgical materials). Because I practice it, the theology of the old Celtic Church has become a part of my living tradition and my heart's expression of love and worship of God. O'Loughlin understands our Christian heritage intellectually and I recommend it to be a part of anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the Orthodox Christian faith from a Celtic perspective. Of the other authors (who have commercially published on this topic), I could only recommend Ian Bradley. The fad of Celtomania seems to have begun because for the longest time academia largely ignored the heritage of the Irish, the Scots and the Welsh and placed emphasis on Anglo-Saxon in the English-speaking world. Then along comes various ethnic studies limited to minorities. Celtomania became the place for any crackpot theory. Now Celtic studies are finally becoming serious. We can do without the immature romanticism of New Age, the neopagans and the various anachronisms we have had to endure about our Celtic heritage. We can lose the scholars who contend that there was no Celtic Church. We can lay to rest the notions of Pelagianism as "Celtic Theology" without giving into the notions of Augustine's predestination. Serious scholars need to read O'Loughlin's book.

Rating:
Summary: The Celtic Church: Orthodox, Catholic and Celtic
Review: I find Thomas O'Loughlin's handling of the material refreshing. I practice Celtic Orthodoxy everyday in my own life as a deacon serving in the Celtic Orthodox Christian Church (an Eastern Orthodox old calendarist jurisdiction using translations of the Stowe Missal and other liturgical materials). Because I practice it, the theology of the old Celtic Church has become a part of my living tradition and my heart's expression of love and worship of God. O'Loughlin understands our Christian heritage intellectually and I recommend it to be a part of anyone who wants a deeper understanding of the Orthodox Christian faith from a Celtic perspective. Of the other authors (who have commercially published on this topic), I could only recommend Ian Bradley. The fad of Celtomania seems to have begun because for the longest time academia largely ignored the heritage of the Irish, the Scots and the Welsh and placed emphasis on Anglo-Saxon in the English-speaking world. Then along comes various ethnic studies limited to minorities. Celtomania became the place for any crackpot theory. Now Celtic studies are finally becoming serious. We can do without the immature romanticism of New Age, the neopagans and the various anachronisms we have had to endure about our Celtic heritage. We can lose the scholars who contend that there was no Celtic Church. We can lay to rest the notions of Pelagianism as "Celtic Theology" without giving into the notions of Augustine's predestination. Serious scholars need to read O'Loughlin's book.

Rating:
Summary: eltic Faithand Practice
Review: The phrase "Early Irish" means the period from the fifth to the tenth century. Much theological material survives from then, but scholars have mostly used it for historical purposes, such as determining which church fathers the Irish knew. In this welcome, indeed overdue, volume, O'Laughlin examines theological themes. Throughout the book he struggles against modern perceptions of an idiosyncratic Celtic Church, "an eco-friendly, Augustine-free zone without formal theology or law" (19). This phenomenon has many parents from Irish Protestants who portrayed a national church that maintained its independence from Rome to contemporary New Age types who simply resent formality-and usually intellectuality-in religion. O'Loughlin argues for a distinctive Irish theology in the sense that every society has brought its cultural values to the understanding of Christianity. The Irish considered themselves part of the Western Church.

Two examples will show O'Loughlin's method. Adomnan of Iona (625-704) wrote De Locis Sanctis, about the Holy Land that he had never seen, yet this book became popular in the early Middle Ages. Adomnan applies Augustine's exegetical principles to his subject, and, "teasing out references to places in the Fathers," he established the theological significance of specific sites. His description of salt "fulfill(ed) a need, expressed by Augustine, for book on minerals mentioned in the Scriptures" (80). O'Loughlin similarly demonstrated how the Collectio Canonum Hibernorum embodied not just a collection of legal decisions but also a particular theological stance, such as exalting virginity over marriage. All in all, a fine book by a leading scholar.

Joseph F. Kelly
John Carroll University