Celtic Spirituality : The re-invention of Tradition

John Burgess

The Development of Tradition

Tradition is an important part of religion and the Christian faith early on developed its traditions.  Frances Young understands that the development of the Christian Tradition derived from a need to articulate a faith which had been one primarily based on experience.  She acknowledges that the creeds of the Church embody and articulate a tradition of faith that in the past has been understood to simply be the retelling of "facts", but that this is a partial understanding.  They also represent the formulation and interpretation of experience for different contexts.  Tradition then, is something that is dynamic and changing, and not static.  Parratt expresses the need for tradition to be dynamic and understands that it is reformulated regularly to meet the changing needs of a context.  Consequently the concept of Tradition as something that is fixed from the past and unchanging is no longer considered to be an acceptable definition.

Tradition is normally considered to be a body of experience, wisdom, ritual and truth, that is related to a particular context and culture.  It is an expression of  the belief system or worldview of a particular group of people, which could be a social group or a religious group, and is generally considered to be derived from antiquity.  So Parratt will say that the purpose of tradition is to contextualise belief so that it makes the worldview of the social group appropriate for a new or changing context.  When a tradition is unable to deal with the issues that arise from a changing society and culture, and when it is no longer a stabilising process, then the tradition itself is seen to be irrelevant and a new tradition needs to be developed.  
 
The periodic rise in interest in the Celtic Tradition is an example of this re-invention of tradition in the face of a rapid change in society.  The Celtic Tradition has been called upon, plundered and manipulated to help give a foundation and stability to a society that is involved in a paradigm shift and questions the relevance of its institutions to deal with the needs of the contemporary society.

The Development of the Celtic Tradition in Gildas and Bede

Gildas was living through the era of disruption and crisis of the "Saxon invasion" of Britain in the mid 6th Century, that was moving Britain from the Roman era into the early medieval period bringing with it new worldviews, concepts and ideologies.  Consequently it could be described as a period of paradigm shift.  

What is clear to Gildas that the Church was unable to deal with this period of crisis and needs to find new ways and methods.  His work "The Ruin of Britain" is a contribution to the development of a new tradition for Christianity in an attempt to be relevant to the new era.  He builds his new Christianity from the Bible and from the past, claiming that the Roman period was a Golden era of politics, social structure and Christianity.  Central to this new tradition is the concept that Christian ethics and praxis is more important than doctrine.  

Gildas builds a tradition from the past that he feels will address the needs of his day and uses the tradition to rebuild the church with a structure that centres around a reformed clergy and responsible and pious political leadership.  This will give a firm foundation for the people so that the church can be an effective spiritual instrument for the people, becoming a popular faith.   It is the beginnings of a Celtic tradition as it engages with the era that has become known as the Celtic Christian era of British history, and it conforms to, and perhaps originates the model, which is clearly part of the Celtic Tradition.

Bede continues the work of Gildas, and is able to develop the tradition focusing on the practice of the Celtic saints as the model.  The crisis for Bede is the Church in the new political era of the establishment and consolidation of Saxon political rule in England.  He sees the church in England of the eighth century as having succumbed to the temptations of wealth and ease that have been brought about through the stabilising of the political situation. 

Bede re-invents the Celtic Tradition as a model for his time.  The tradition that he presents is one of a Golden age of spirituality, where the Christian is judged not simply by his conformity to doctrine, but the way his faith is lived out.  Bede is concerned about orthopraxis as well as orthodoxy.  The Celtic Tradition is presented as one that is a model for asceticism, piety, humility, love, prayer and evangelism.  The lives of the saints, particularly Aidan and Cuthbert, are the examples of this.  While Bede is ready to dismiss the British Church as heretical, he has a great love for the Northern saints.  He only devotes part of one chapter to Columba, because his book is primarily concerned with England and not Scotland, but recognises the important influence of Iona on the Kings and saints who produced the Golden Age of Christianity in Northumbria.  Bede seems almost consciously to be building a tradition for he is selective in his approach to the historic material, and he puts his own interpretation upon it so that his mission and use of the tradition is to encourage a new practise of faith in England. 

The Continuing Use of the Tradition

Bede and to a lesser extent Gildas have given us a model of the re-invention of the Celtic Tradition as a useful tool to address the needs of a society or church in crisis.  Evidence for the use of this Celtic Tradition can also be found throughout the history of Britain and particularly of England.

The development of the "lives of the saints" at a time when the Church and state became increasingly powerful under the Norman overlords is another example of the re-invention of tradition.   Hagiography is particularly a medieval literary skill, and the Celtic Tradition was in the forefront of this movement.  It is from the 11th - 13th century that the majority of the lives of the saints arose, either as new documents or the rewriting of older written or oral material.  These lives become a means of providing a spirituality for the people that will allow them to become part of the new political and religious order, subject to it and yet at the same time religiously fulfilled.  We see, then, the use of the Celtic Tradition to develop an "alternative" Christianity in the face of a growing institutionalisation, power and uniformity of the European Church.  

The era of the Protestant Reformation brought with it a general distrust of tradition which led the Reformers to develop a very strongly based Biblical tradition of Puritanism.  The basis of this tradition was the re-invention of the early church found in the interpretation of the New Testament material.  England had moved on to a literary era where the oral traditions of the past were suspect and so one cannot expect much reference to the Celtic Tradition.  However Foxe does make reference to the Church in Britain before the coming of Augustine as living an uncorrupt faith when the word of Christ was truly preached.

Later Protestantism does however make use of the Celtic Tradition when it is used as propaganda against the Roman Catholic Church.  This seems to re-emerge again in the late 19th century and early 20th century, when Roman Catholicism achieved significant growth and increasing influence in England and Wales.  This was perceived as a great threat to Protestantism in England and gave rise to the publishing of material which was anti-Catholic in nature.  Some authors made use of the Celtic Tradition in their attacks on the Roman Catholic Church.  The main development of their argument centred on two aspects.  The first was to re-develop the tradition of an apostolic foundation of the Church in Britain, through the retelling of the various traditions of Caractocus and Paul, Joseph of Arimathea, and King Lucius.  Thus establishing a tradition of an independent church in Britain derived from Paul and other apostles but unrelated to Rome and the apostle Peter.  The second strand of the argument centred on the Celtic Church itself, as a separate development, that was related to the Church in Gaul, but not of Rome.  

Another use of the Celtic Tradition that is particularly seen to develop in the late nineteenth century and continued into the mid twentieth century is in support of foreign missions.  For example, Thomas attempted to gain some authenticity and antiquity for the Church in Wales, possibly in the face of the growth of non-conformity, by claiming a missionary power for the diocese which is related back to Kentigen.  Thomas is interpreting the events of the past in the light of contemporary practises and so understands the Tradition to be a missionary tradition.  In his case he relates it to the work of the Universities Mission to Central Africa, and so both authenticates his claims for the Church and the methods that the missionary society was using in the second half of the nineteenth century.  Some authors of the time consider that Mission is undertaken both at home and overseas.  Yet others understand the Celtic Tradition to be a model for Imperialistic mission. 

The use of the Celtic Tradition for the encouragement of Missionary endeavours continues into the 1960's where many of the "popular" writings about the Celtic Christian period focus on the saints as primarily missionary in nature.  By then, however, there was a growing embarrassment about the connection between British imperialism and Mission and so the Celtic saints are contrasted with Augustine, who as the imperialist is out of favour.  In its stead the Celtic Saints become a model for what might be considered an incarnational and contextual style of mission.  Foster designs his model for mission from the Celtic saints as a fivefold concept.  The saints built a base for mission in their monasteries, used the method of public preaching for evangelism, trained "native" clergy, were an example of the Christian life and preached the simple gospel.  It is also interesting to note that in referring to Bede, he makes his own translation, so that what other contemporary authors translate as "Bishop", he translates as "missionary".

But by the middle of the 20th century there was the beginning of the move away from the Celtic Tradition being a model for mission to being a model for a personal spirituality.  In the post-war period overtly Christian mission gave way to an emphasis on the social Gospel; there was a general uncertainty of the Christian faith in the face of the forces of science and secularism, and a growing awareness of the religious plurality of society.  These together influenced the move to the privatisation of Religion and the concern for individual spirituality in Britain.  

The Contemporary Expression of the Celtic Tradition

Our very brief survey of the material relating to the rediscovery of the Celtic Tradition throughout the last 1500 years of British history has shown that the rise in interest of the subject coincides with certain times of crisis in the life of the Church.  These crises represent the struggle of the Church in dealing with new cultural situations that some scholars would understand as paradigm shifts.  The present is understood by some missiologies and many sociologists as such a moment of paradigm shift and is given the title of the Post-modern era.
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The Post-modern culture is characterised as being a consumerist culture, which is "eclectic", "pick and mix", "recyclic" and "wallowing in change".  It involves the rejection of metanarratives replacing them with an emphasis on experience over above received knowledge and cognitive faith, and a focus on individuality rather than community, particularly in terms of relationships.  It is the celebration of multiplicity, diversity and difference.  The metanarratives, history and all academic systems become resources that are plundered for entertainment and experience, and the images and concepts plucked out are removed from any context and reduced to a commodity to be used. The Post-modern paradigm, then, is very appropriate for a re-invention of traditions, and provides the process for the development of Tradition.

The contemporary re-invention of the Celtic Tradition, drawing together the strands of romanticism, eclecticism, awareness of the sensory, experiential and individualism in spiritual searching, is very much a method for the Post-modern era.  It is presented as a "popular" spirituality in which all people can participate because it does not draw hard boundaries around acceptable ways in which faith can be experienced or expressed.  The individual is allowed a greater freedom than the institution of the Church or its creeds will permit.  It meets the people "where they are."  

The proliferation of books and pamphlets about Celtic Christianity, Celtic Spirituality and the Celtic Church indicate the great interest that has arisen in the subject.  Different authors focus on different aspects of the Celtic Tradition, selecting what addresses their concerns or the perceived needs of society but most agree that contextualisation is central to Celtic Spirituality.  The writings of de Waal, Davies, Van der Weyer and many others attempt to present the Celtic Tradition as a type of Christianity derived from and related to the rural experience producing a personalised faith that focuses on experience and the immanence of God in all things.  The Iona Community has understood the Celtic Tradition to emphasise the immanence of God in all places such that its beginnings were in the inner city of Glasgow attempting to bring the professional clergy and the laity closer together.  David Adam also developed his Neo-Celtic tradition in the mission situation of the inner, industrialised city.  For Simpson and Mitton the Celtic Tradition is presented as an alternative to Church which is historic, institutionalised and controlled by dogma and creeds and a professionally dominated religion.  Toulson and Sheldrake want to emphasise the importance of the revival of respect for sacred places and times, which can be linked historically to the spiritual roots of the people.
 
Above all the re-invention of the Celtic Tradition provides an important new method for mission.  Being centred on experience rather than doctrine, it affirms the spirituality of the people by allowing it to be interpreted and reinterpreted with both the changing culture and the developing spirituality of the people.  It has a built-in flexibility because the concept of the Celtic Tradition is little more than an umbrella term within which there can be a great deal of variety and selectivity.  It is also able to hold together the paradox of tradition, that it is both a human invention and inspired by God.  This dual approach to tradition enables it to be a process for the development of the relationship between the  human and the Divine, that is expressed and understood in "everyday" terms, and not ecclesiastical formulations.  It becomes a means of incarnating the Gospel into different contexts, by the reworking of the material and the tradition.  It is a contextualised spirituality.

Therefore Celtic Spirituality is a new way of doing theology. Being eclectic by nature it is a new approach that by definition cannot be systematised, for once it is systematised then it loses its very nature.  It has to be the expression of Spirituality that cannot be held down by definitions and systems, and therefore it cannot be a theology, which implies a system.  Understood in this way the re-invention of the Celtic Tradition in the late 1980's and the 1990's has to be an invention for the Post-modern era to help to provide a model and process for a developing, contextualised, spirituality for the crisis of the changing paradigm.