CHRIST OF THE CELTS

On a recent visit to Iona I attended a book reading at the Abbey book shop. As I listened to John Philip Newell expressing his rejection of the concept of original sin, embracing the importance of the feminine and revealing his deep desire for the whole of Christianity to honour the Earth as Celtic spirituality does, I felt tears running down my face. Tears of gratitude for the poetic way he gives expression to a Christianity based on the wisdom of the Celts. Outside the room the rebuilt Abbey and the beautiful island of Iona provided the perfect backdrop for the much needed revival of values crucial to the healing of our world, the healing of creation in fact. The starting point of his book is the disillusionment he sees 'within the Christian household today.' He writes: "There is despair about much of what Christianity has to offer. So many of its teachings and practices seem either irrelevant to the deepest yearnings of the human soul or flatly opposed to them. Why? Is it not in part because we have been taught to distrust our deepest yearnings rather than to see them as sacred? And is it not also because we have been given the impression that Christ comes to subdue or deny our deepest desires rather than to nurture and heal them?" Drawing upon Celtic Christian texts and sources such as The Acts of John and the Secret Book of John he encourages us to form a different view of Christ and of ourselves. In the first chapter: The Memory of the Song, he explores "the Celtic image of Christ as the memory of what we have forgotten. He remembers the dance of the universe and the harmony that is deep within all things. He is the memory of who we are." Newell believes that at the heart of all humans lie wisdom, creativity and a longing for union. Our task is not to change our essence but to reach down to the forgotten core of ourselves which is in harmony with the natural world. According to the lost Gospel of Thomas and other writings, Christ tells John that he has come to awaken us from a deep sleep, a "bond of forgetfulness". Our destructive tendencies come from a false sense of self. Sin is what happens when we are not being truly ourselves, 'not living from the true root of our being.' Newell writes:" To say that the root of every person and creature is in God, rather than opposed to God, has enormous implications for how we view ourselves, including our deepest physical, sexual and emotional energies." From this insight it becomes apparent that the concept of original sin has no place in this new vision of Christianity. In his view it is a doctrine that was taken up by the builders of empire in Roman times. Newell refuses to expose his youngest son to such negative messages: "I will not have him sit through liturgies or sermons that subject him to the belief that his deepest energies come from a sinful place." I can only commend such sentiments having reluctantly repeated: 'There is no health in us.' many times as part of the service of evensong whilst my son was a chorister. In subsequent chapters Newell provides Celtic teachings to help us reconnect to the Earth and its creatures, challenges the idea of creation ex nihilo and explores the "Celtic belief that the Heartbeat of life is Love." According to Celtic tradition "Christ comes to show us that matter matters. Creation will be saved only if we learn to revere matter, whether that be the matter of our human bodies, the matter of the body of the earth, or the matter of the body politic and how we relate to one another as sovereign nations. The elemental notes of the universe are alive with Spirit." Newell sees Christ on the cross as an expression of love rather than atonement for our sins, rejecting the idea that Jesus had to be sacrificed in order for God to forgive us. In his vision: "The whole cosmos is a Self-giving of God. And we will find our place in the great dance only to the extent that we love." This is a refreshing and encouraging view of Christianity, one very much in line with the vision of Matthew Fox who has provided much inspiration to John Philip Newell. True to the Celtic tradition, Newell writes poetically, somewhat reminiscent of the wonderful Irish mystic and poet John O'Donohue. This is the language of soul, the language of the right hemisphere, metaphorical, relational, pointing beyond itself. The whole book works with the metaphor of music as the titles of the chapters testify: The Memory of the Song, the Rhythm of the Earth and Broken Cadences. Newell was warden of Iona Abbey for many years after his studies of Celtic Christianity in Edinburgh. For those of us who have become disillusioned with traditional Christian practices and doctrines this book provides a holistic alternative which is vital for the shift in consciousness necessary for the healing of our world. For Newell God is immanent in all nature and the universe, something which is easy to sense whilst on the beautiful island of Iona. Indeed John Philip Newell prefers to pray in the ruins of the nunnery than in the rebuilt abbey church. " The nunnery sits open to creation. Whether in sun or in storm, whether in the open skies of a clear morning or the infinite stretches of space at night, in the nunnery one is aware of the elements, of birdsong, of ivy leafed toadflax.. of unbridled wind. It is this that so many of us are looking for in our spiritual journey today, a connection between spirit and matter, the ancient bond between the wild and the sacred, an openness in relationship between prayer and cosmos." These are uplifting sentiments in an uplifting book and I feel honoured to have enjoyed the author's gentle and modest presence.