Explorations in Celtic Spirituality
Is There a Celtic Church?

Bede, writing from a Northumbrian perspective of the 8th Century, is a major literary source for the understanding of the Church in the kingdoms of mainland Britain between the withdrawal of Roman Imperialism and the imposition of the new Roman Imperialism of the Church.  Interpretation of Bede has led to the popular conclusion that this was a period of primary evangelisation of the people of the land and nations, following the decline into heathenism as a consequence of the removal of the protection of the ruling Roman classes and the Roman Army.  Mitton states: 

The Christianity which came with the Roman legions seems to have had little effect on the local population who preferred their indigenous pagan ways to the religion of the conquering forces.  When the Romans abandoned Britain in the early fifth century they took the Christian faith with them.  All that remained were pockets of faith about to burst into flame in the form of what we now call Celtic Christianity.

This rather "romantic" view of this period of history, is being seriously challenged today by scholars seeking to do justice to the literary and archaeological evidence.  Thomas and others through their studies of ecclesiastical and graveyard archaeology of the post Roman period and early  Saxon period have clearly shown that while evidence is not in great abundance, that which is available indicates that there was no discontinuity in Christian history in mainland Britain.  Similarly the assumption that the withdrawal of the troops in the early fifth century marked the end of Roman rule in Britain is also severely challenged.  The more likely scenario is that the rule and culture was by the fifth century largely in the control of Romanised Britons, who tried against the great odds of the invasions of the Saxon peoples to maintain both a Roman civil structure and the orthodox Christian faith.

Two examples help to verify the findings of the archaeologists.  Gildas clearly implies that there was a continuity of Christianity in Britain and that it was not simply to be found in "Pockets" but that it was the religion of the people and in particular of the rulers or Kings.  The basis of Gildas' condemnation of the rulers of Britain is the Christian faith and scriptures.  His assumption is that the Rulers are Christians, although their actions show little of their faith.

The second serious challenge to the concepts expressed by Mitton, is to the understanding that a peculiar indigenous church developed in Britain such that it can be called the Celtic Church.  Toulson takes a rather naive approach to the subject in her book "The Celtic Alternative" and attempts to reconstruct the Church in Britain as a cohesive church with fixed doctrines and practises developed from the druidic traditions of Britain  that clashed with the Roman church at Whitby like two organised armies on the battlefield.  Much of this understanding of an organised Church with fixed liturgies and doctrines that diverged from the emerging authoritarian Roman Church due to the isolation of the British Church from the continent, is drawn from the work of King and particularly Hardinge and Gougard, together with the 19th century work of Warren, who manage to fill pages of their works with the details of the doctrines, liturgy and ministry of the Celtic Church.  They draw on some Medieval material, including penitentials, and evidence from the Gallican Church and project this back to Dark Age Britain.  The results of this work seem to be suspect as they attempt to give such detail that would be quite impossible to attain from the evidence available and so must be classified as imaginative or romantic reconstruction.

Allchin, on the other hand, does not deny that there was a Celtic Church in Britain in the Dark Ages but prefers to use the term Celtic Christianity, and his evidence for this is not documents of an institutionalised Church but the writings of the "saints", and the traditions associated with particular people and places.  He states:

Celtic Christianity, fact or fantasy?  Fact indeed, the texts are there, hidden in the old manuscripts, hidden in the scholarly editions.  The places are there too, easily overlooked, waiting for our love and care to waken them into new life.

 So Allchin promotes the concept that there was something unique in the Christianity in Britain in the Dark Ages, but is not willing to claim that it was so distinct in form that it was divorced from the doctrines and practices of the Roman Church.  He prefers to define its uniqueness though its piety and spirituality.

Thus the term "Celtic Church" or even "Celtic Christianity" can only be used for convenience and must be clearly defined if it is to have any meaning and purpose.  Some scholars would vehemently deny that it has any meaning, historical reality or value of purpose. Evans is one such scholar who cannot accept that the church of the "Dark Ages" was anything other than the Church, and that while there obviously developed traditions and theology that diverged from that associated with Rome, it was a continual development of the church established in Roman times and that there was no cohesive and united Celtic Church that would approximate to anything that we might call today a Protestant Church or a denomination.  

Mackey in his introduction to the collection of articles which he edits is only ready to define Celtic Christianity as the Christianity associated with people who claim to be Celtic in descent.  This opens the whole definition as wide as possible and releases it from any one part of history, and any one type of spirituality or expression of the faith.  It becomes as open as the terms "Western Christianity" or "African Christianity".

How can we then define the term and which term should be used?  In this project I feel the most appropriate term is "Celtic Spirituality" which recognises the foregoing debate, and  indicates that the thesis is not about the historical British Church as such but the contemporary popularisation of the perceived spirituality that is associated with the saints and church of Britain in the 6th - 8th centuries.
Resources for Celtic Spirituality

Studies, papers and books on the subject of Celtic Christianity, have appeared from time to time in British ecclesiastical debates to help to deal with perceived needs and concerns.  

The primary sources for a study of Celtic Christianity are very limited in terms of historical documents.  The oldest material is the works of Gildas, which probably comes from the 5th century (although this is debated)  and Bede from the 8th Century, and is the closest link to the time of the "Saints".  The "lives of the saints" derive from different periods. Some of them, such as the life of Cuthbert, the life of Columba and material about Aidan can be accepted as reasonably contemporary with the people, whereas much of the material about the saints,  in the form that we possess it, is of mediaeval dating from the 11th and 12th centuries.  But in all cases this material is less biography and history than literature for development of piety among the common people.  How much of this material is mediaeval concoction and how much of it goes back to the time of the saints?

Allchin is prepared to say that much of it is of historic value.  In his presentation of the story of the life of St. Melangell he states:

The Latin [version] comes to us from a manuscript copied in the seventeenth century, a hundred years or so after the Reformation.  The story of course goes back long before that.  There is no reason to doubt that in its essentials it goes back long before the conquest of Wales in 1282, back into the seventh century of which it speaks.

In the early 20th Century "historic" Celtic Christianity was used as a means of apologetics in the face of the growing Roman Catholic Church in Britain.  Such books (one could almost call them tracts) appear as blatant abuse of history for anti-Catholic rhetoric.

The middle of the 20th Century saw a concern for Worldwide Christian Mission and this is reflected in the published material that draws on the Celtic heritage, which itself continues a tradition developed in the late 19th Century where the Missionary Concern in the West was very much at its height.

To deal with this material then, is not to deal with work that documents history or even pretends to present the unembellished "facts", but to unravel the purpose, agendas and bias of the authors.   Bede aims to convince the people of Northumbria that however much the "Celtic Saints" are to be admired they were sectarian, and that the only true faith is that promulgated by Rome.  

I have dealt at length with the character and life of Aidan, although one cannot commend or approve his inadequate knowledge of the proper observance of Easter; indeed as I have made clear in my book on the seasons, I strongly disapprove of the se practices. None the less as a truthful historian , I have given an accurate account of his life...

Likewise The mediaeval "Lives" were propaganda used by both "sides" in the conflict between the British and the Normans in defence of their culture and church on the one hand and the aspirations of imperialism on the other, while the aims of the late 19th Century Celtic material are clearly illustrated by D.R. Thomas in his discussion about Kentigen:

The Institution founded by Kentigen soon attained a high repute.  Partaking of the nature of a missionary colony, something like the Universities Mission to Central Africa, and combining in its scheme not only the offices of Religion, but also the several duties of education, husbandry and handicraft, it drew together a large number of members.

The early 20th century material is concerned with the growing Roman Catholic Church in Britain and the defence of Protestantism. Davies states that the intention of his book is to:

Undertake that at no time was the Early Celtic Church united with the rest of Christendom in its allegiance to the see of Rome....  That the Celtic and Roman Churches were bitterly hostile towards each other; that the former was denounced as heretical, and non-Catholic, by the latter, and, as such, was excluded from all communion with it; and that, in return, the Celtic Church indignantly repudiated all dictation on the part of the Roman Church, and all interference with its own independency.

Interpreting Celtic Spirituality for Today

What then is the purpose of the abundant contemporary material?

The recent publications can be divided roughly into two types.  That which draws on previous works and historical documents such as Bede and Gildas and the "Lives of the Saints" and attempt to reconstruct a Celtic Christianity for today; and anthologies of verse and literature that are mostly derived from the collection known as the Carmina Gadelica, and the "Lives of the Saints", which present a Spirituality for the 20th Century.  In essence though, they all seem to be part of the movement of the revival of all things Celtic and the encouragement of a new spirituality for the present context.

The question that arises is why there seems to be a need for a new spirituality and why the spirituality that seems to be appropriate is Celtic Spirituality? Does it suggest that the Institutionalised Church is unable to meet the needs for a contemporary spirituality?  A brief analysis of the Spirituality that is presented as Celtic to the people of the 1990's may help to elucidate these questions.

The anthologies of Celtic verse and prose have a general consensus of approach which is betrayed in the titles which frequently contain the word "blessings".  They are anthologies of material that portray the saints as miracle workers, and people who can call upon God for blessing and protection.  The selections of the material from the Carmina Gadelica and other traditions are also largely prayers for blessing, fruitfulness and protection.  Thus they are clearly "earthy" in that they are not concerned with the doctrines of the church, or Christianity in an abstract form but with the reality of the experience of God in every aspect of life.  It is a non-church spirituality and so could be called a "folk spirituality".  As such then it is open to many forms of interpretation and is not constrained by the definitions and controls of the church.  Celtic Spirituality allows for the free expression of the experience of faith not constrained by the creeds or baptismal formulae of the institutional Christianity.

		Teat of Mary
		Teat of Brigit,
		Teat of Michael,
		Teat of God ...

		Bless, O God my little cow,
		Bless, O God, my desire;
		Bless Thou my partnership
		And the milking of my hands, O God.

		Bless, O God, each teat,
		Bless, O God, each finger;
		Bless Thou each drop
		That goes into my pitcher, O God!

It is presented as a personal spirituality and more - an individual spirituality that does not need organised worship and ritual.  Worship takes place at all times and in all places so that the theatre of creation is the sanctuary for praise and prayer.  Spirituality borders on the pantheistic.  The  Celtic Spirituality thus presented depicts a faith that is largely experiential rather than cerebral.  This faith does not need to be authenticated by the institutional church but by the lives of the faithful.  It therefore challenges the Church to re-evaluate its obsession with the definitions of faith and the power it has to define how the Christ experience can be expressed?

		There is no plant in the ground
		But it is full of His virtue,
		There is no form in the strand
		But it is full of His blessing
		Jesu! Jesu! Jesu! Jesu! meet it were to praise Him

		There is no life in the sea,
		There is no creature in the river,
		There is naught in the firmament,
		But proclaims His goodness
		Jesu! Jesu! Jesu! Jesu! meet it were to praise Him
Common selections from the lives of the saints depict a people that are in communion with creation in a Franciscan manner, challenge the ideals of society and the power of the ruling classes, and some might even find the saints addressing the gender issues of today. Yet while the lives of the saints may be full of miracles and blessings, they are also reminders of the need for austerity and self-sacrifice to develop an authentic spirituality.

One day the prince was out hunting in his lands in Powys when he startled a hare.  He and his dogs gave chase which brought them into the valley.  As they chased the hare up the valley, it disappeared into a thicket of brambles.  On entering the thicket, the prince found Melangell, who had been at prayer, with the hare sheltering under the hem of her gown.  The prince shouted at the dogs to catch the hare, but they refused to do so, and instead retreated from the saint.  He tried again by blowing his horn, but still the dogs refused.  One tradition claims that the horn stuck to his lips.  The prince was amazed at what was happening and that the saint showed no fear of him.   As he recognised her holiness, simplicity and her readiness to protect the hare from the dogs, the marshall arts of the young chieftain become as it were paralysed.   Entering into conversation with the girl, he discovered that she had been alone in the valley for 15 years, he humbled himself and gave her the valley to be used as a sanctuary for both animals and people.

Celtic Spirituality then can be seen to be a means of addressing the concerns of the day that relate to the issues of the day, such as ecological concerns, gender issues, individualism and materialism, so as to become the vehicle of expressing contemporary ideological and spiritual concerns in the material of a romanticised past.  Is Celtic Spirituality simply the projection of a contemporary spiritual ideal into the history and the biography of the people of a distant period and a plea for a faith that will deal with the felt needs of today?

The presentation of Celtic Christianity in the late 19th and middle 20th century explores the material of the lives and traditions of the saints in the light of a mission strategy.  The Celtic heritage is presented  as inherently missionary, with the emphasis on organised or itinerant mission, through the "wandering saints" establishing missionary stations across Europe, in the great missionary movement called "peregrinate".  Is this no more than an interpretation of the material in the light of the Christian concerns of their day? 

If this analysis of the earlier material is correct then it will suggest that the same process is taking place in the contemporary selections of material.  Extracting the aspects of the traditions which highlight the ecological concerns of the Celtic Christians, a seeking for protection and blessing, healing and miracle, the spirituality that is presented is holistic, but not missionary.  It may also be challenged as to whether it is a complete spirituality, if the collections of material do not present the full picture of the hardship and sacrifice that was experienced and needed to produce the traditions that are becoming so popular today.