How The Celts Saved Britain And Can Save The World
Dan Snow's documentary How the Celts Saved Britain was re-played on prime time British TV last night. It compellingly tells the story of Saint Columba, Iona, and its Irish Mission to the English based on Lindisfarne.
However, in common with many commentators, it falls for the half truth that Celtic influence ended with the 664 AD Synod of Whitby when the largest English kingdom (Northumbria) adopted Roman rather than Irish rules.
My book St. Aidan's Way of Mission: celtic insights for a post-Christian world (BRF) describes how English apostles trained by Aidan, such as the brothers Chad and Cedd, continued to spread the Lindisfarne-inspired Faith into kingdoms far beyond Northumbria, and how women such as Saint Hilda retained the esssence of Celtic spirituality albeit within a Roman framework.
Hermits in the Celtic tradition flourished for many centuries after 664 on Farne Isle and in westerrn Britain. In Ireland Celtic monasticism has never entirely died out. and Irish missionaries tranformed Europe and lands beyond in 'the new world'. The book How the Irish Saved Civilisation is a testament to that.
In the 21st century new people movements inspired by early Celtic Christianity are springing up on-line and in new monastic networks such as The Community of Aidan and Hilda.
Is it possible, as my latest book A Way of Life for the Third Millennium (Austin Macauley) suggests, that a 'Celtic', that is, a more indigenous, intutive faith can capture the imagination of the world?