As we work on The Celtic Study Bible (the next installment, Matthew, is due to be released on Kindle on October 15), I find myself thinking a lot about how the Celts viewed reading. In Reading the Bible the Celtic Way: The Peacock’s Tail Feathers, Ken McIntosh says:
Read MoreIt’s a perfect day for mountain biking: not too hot but not yet winter here in Northern Arizona. The red-brown trunks and grey-green needles of Ponderosa pines fly past me as I steer my bike along the trail. All I hear is the swish of knobby tires on the earth . . . the wind’s rustle through the pine needles . . . occasionally a raven’s call.
Read MoreThe Celts loved Jesus. When they chose to follow him, it was less like converting to a new religion—and much more like falling passionately in love. In the mid-eighth century, an Irish monk named Colcu ú Duinechda of Clonmacnois wrote this love poem to Jesus:
Read MoreSometimes, I confess, God seems far too intangible and abstract to be of much practical use to me in a world where friends die, politics terrify, wars threaten. This God-concept is one I like to play with intellectually; the notion intrigues me, and theology fascinates me. But are my ideas about God “real”—or merely imaginary?
Read MoreIn Reading the Bible the Celtic Way: The Peacock’s Tail Feathers, Ken McIntosh explores the way in which the early Christian Celts considered the Bible and Nature to be equally the Word of God. Many of us find that concept attractive, both because of the value it puts on the natural world and because it indicates a new balance for biblical literalism. But from our modern perspective, it’s a metaphor. I don’t think we totally grasp the metaphor—because we don’t really get how the medieval mind thought about reading.
Read MoreHere at Anamchara Books, we’ve been impressed (and thrilled) by the overwhelming positive response to our release of the first installment of The Celtic Study Bible—Reading the Bible the Celtic Way: The Peacock’s Tail Feathers by Kenneth McIntosh. Personally, I’m both excited and grateful that this serendipitous idea (which came while exploring Devon and Cornwall with Ken and his wife Marsha) is bearing fruit—and that it’s clearly answering a felt need for many of you. But it’s made me wonder—why? Why are so many of us attracted to “Celtic spirituality”?
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