Celtic Christianity – Listing to the Heartbeat of God

I’ve always wondered why some in the Christian church are so enamored with Celtic stuff. I mean, the Celtic crosses, the artwork, the old stone church buildings, the ‘mystery’, what’s this all about anyway? I then read a short little book about Celtic Christianity called “Listening for the heartbeat of God – A Celtic Christianity” by J. Philip Newell and I really connected with this whole Celtic thing for the first time. What really resonates with me is this idea that God is the heart of all creation, and, since He is, when you really dig deep in every human heart, beneath the surface sin and evil, you will ultimately find the good placed there by God. This is counter to the notion which has it’s roots with the early Christian church father Augustine who taught that the human is basically evil and unable to do anything good without God. It was this very view of creation that got the first Celtic ‘philosopher/theologian’ Pelagius excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Many more excommunications followed as Celtic monasteries revealed this similar belief in creation and the elevation of women and the marriages of Celtic priests. I also find that I resonate with the Celtic idea of following Jesus in such a way that we spend the time really leaning in and listening to God, rather than the easier ‘do, do, do’ busy Christianity. Even the early Celtic missionary methods resonate with me – in that they sought to show the Britons that their pagan spiritual practices were actually calling for the one true God and that Christ fulfills all that their practices were meant to fulfill. So, instead of violently changing or destroying the culture of the Britons, those missionaries would simply help them see how Christ is the root of all that the human heart has been yearning for all along. There is much more to this, so, I’m really chewing on how this relates to followers of Jesus today…now I know why I’ve always loved ‘St. Patrick’s Day’ – all Guinness aside…