Celtic Fire: The Passionate Religious Vision of Ancient Britain and Ireland

"CELTIC FIRE is a wondrous treasure-house of tall 'true' stories of such well-known figures as Patrick, Brigid, Brendan, Columba, Cuthbert, and many others dear to my childhood and even dearer now. These tales of saints and beasts are a beautiful reminder that the animals are part of God's plan, doing heavenly work with often more grace than granted human beings."
-Madeleine L'Engle

"This little book will refresh and inspire your Celtic consciousness. Here are bright flashes from poets and mystics. Here are people who lived as creatures of a common, earthly creation. Here are readings to remind us all how simply life is meant to be lived and in living it simply how we find reflected eternal Mystery."
-Gertrud Mueller Nelson, author of HERE ALL DWELL FREE

This modest anthology offers excerpts from saints' lives, histories, legends, prayers, morality plays, proverbs, and poetry. The texts, conflated from the various available sources, have been recast into modern English by the editor, who also adds a plan for a "modern Celtic pilgrimage." His introduction commends Celtic Christianity as a "spirituality for our time," since it "embraced the natural order," gave women equal status, and was suspicious of hierarchical rigidity (i.e., Roman-stratified Christianity). Van de Weyer traces these Celtic virtues to three influences: Druidic religion, which "placed great emphasis on love" (no mention of such practices as human sacrifices); the "great British heretic" Pelagius's moral self-reliance and social awareness; and the stubborn individualism of the desert fathers. While such enthusiasms seem to owe as much to Rousseau and the spirit of the 1970s as to Celtic Christianity, the freshness and variety of the texts collected here make this a pleasant addition to inspirational collections.
-Anneliese Schwarzer, formerly with "Library Journal"
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.