Roots for the Uprooted
Getting grounded in the disciplines of Celtic Christianity
William R.L. Haley
January 1, 1998
The isle of lona swims suspended in the turquoise sea off the western shore of Scotland, rugged and remote, mysteriously alive and inviting. I camped among her heathered crags, visiting the beaches and fields where Christians have prayed for over 1,400 years among stones, sea, and laughing lambs. A friend and I slept several nights in a little tent just a hundred yards from where St. Columba landed his wind-driven leather coracle on the pebbled beach on the Day of Pentecost in A.D. 563. As young adults, we had come to a place of pilgrimage, seeking out the land where Celtic Christianity emerged more than a millennium before.
Celtic Christianity, like all things Celtic, has recently enjoyed a renaissance. I hope, however, that the popularity of Celtic Christianity, which had its golden age between the fourth and eighth centuries, proves to be more than a passing fad. The Celtic Christian tradition has much to teach the contemporary church, particularly as she seeks to bring members of our generation to faith. In the last issue of regeneration (3.4), I wrote about the ways in which Celtic Christianity reminds us to seek the presence of God in the midst of everyday life and to practice wise stewardship of the environment. In this issue, I would like to focus on three disciplines practiced by Celtic Christians that can ground the faith of young Christians.
1. Like all authentic forms of indigenous Christianity, Celtic Christianity took that which was valuable from the Celtic tradition—such as its all-encompassing sense of the supernatural—purified it of its pagan origins, and put it to the service of the Triune God. One of the disciplines that was central to the Celtic Christians, which emerged from the druid culture that preceded ...
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