pat loughery

Here’s a summary and responses to chapter 2 of George Hunter’s The Celtic Way of Evangelism.

In chapter two, Hunter describes the form of community life that was shaped in early Celtic Christianity.

In general, Celtic Christianity was more a movement than Roman Christianity’s tendency to institution; it incorporated more laity in ministry and less ordained clergy; it was more imaginative and less cerebral, it identified more closely with nature, and it emphasized the immanence of God more than His transcendence.

The communities themselves drew from the monastic communities found in the Eastern church and Gaul, but the Celtic communities were distinct from those forms in several ways:

– While Eastern monasteries emphasized protest and escape from Roman materialism and the corruption of the church, the Celtic monasteries were organized to penetrate the pagan world and expand the church.

– Eastern monasteries were established in isolated locations, and Celtic monasteries were created in high-traffic locations

– Celtic monasteries included monks and nuns living ascetic lives, but also lay people doing everyday work and included men, women and children

– Celtic monasteries produced a less individualistic and more community-oriented expression of faith

– Celtic Christianity sought to impact not just the transcendent issues for a person, but also everyday issues. Prayers were formed and taught for the simplest of everyday tasks – sowing seed, milking cows, prayer for a new baby. Instead of fixed-hour prayer, Celtic Christians practiced a constant state of contemplative prayer.

Ray Simpson has two books referenced in this section: “Exploring Celtic Spirituality”, and “Celtic Blessings for Everyday Life”, which I need to pick up. Another resource is the Carmina Gadelica, a collection of folk Christian resources collected in the nineteenth century by Douglas Hyde who documented the oral tradition still alive in rural areas.

Celtic monasteries emphasized three practices: worship, study and work. Prayers accompanied each of these activities, and everybody in the community was expected to participate in all three practices.

—

Justin at Radical Congruency blogged on this topic a short while back. His suggestions for prayer topics and the comments to the post are helpful.