Friday, December 15, 2006

Postmodern Celts???

In my class on Celtic Christianity Dr. Purves listed some characteristics of Celtic Christianity that he is discovering i his reading. I was struck how the mindset and worldview of the Celts lined up with many postmodern Christians. I have heard it said before that the premodern (the Celts) era is very similar to the postmodern era. Could these not also be characteristics of an incarnated church in a postmodern and post-Christendom, 21st century culture?

  • Embodiedness, for the Celts life was whole; there was no split between body and spirit
  • They had a strong sense of the immanence the nearness of God especially on earth
  • The believed in and depended on the Power of God and the supernatural
  • They were Penitential
  • Incarnational
  • They had a Sacramental world view
  • They were Ascetics – they like it tough and with self denial
  • Strongly affective, relational and communal
  • Trinitarian
  • Non-dualists
  • Liminality – the distance between heaven and earth is very thin
  • Missional
  • They were Perepatic people or wonderers, journeyers; yet for whom home was important
  • They were non-hierarchical and communitarian
  • They were oral people, story tellers
Man I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

3 comments:

Sarah Louise said...

peripatic is one of my favorite words--I just learned it recently--but HOME is also very important.

Sarah Louise said...

Kewl comments, dude!!

Anonymous said...

another interesting book is "Listening for the Heartbeat of God, A Celtic Spirituality" by J. Philip Newell

the book is presented with a balanced approach, between Celtic (St John) and Roman (St Peter) influences, and does not "preach".

it speaks on the 'Celtic Church's emphasis on the presence of God at the heart of all life and within all people'...'we can look to creation just as we look to the Scriptures to receive the living Word of God' (p.6)

I'm currently reading Joyce's Celtic Christianity as well....will be back when I'm done!

Have enjoyed reading your thoughts on the Celts...and I liked the beer post as well!!