"Well This Explains A Lot!"

Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality, Part One

There are moments in our lives and in human history that have a consequential impact. Moments when a decision is made, a trajectory is set, and the effects are significant and far-reaching, even if unnoticed for years or decades. I recently read about one of those moments in the history of the Christian Church and thought to myself, “Well this explains a lot!”

The moment I’m referring to is the Synod of Whitby in 664 A.D. in Northumbria described to me by J. Philip Newell in his book Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality. In a nutshell, here’s what happened:

King Oswy of Northumbria convened the Synod of Whitby because of clashes between two missions within the Christian Church in Britain: the Celtic mission and the Roman mission.

In essence, the Celts listened for the heartbeat of God in all of life, believing that God is the Life within life, and that the goodness of God is native within all creation, including human persons.

The Roman mission listened for God’s heartbeat within the Church and its ordained teachings. They believed that God’s presence was made known exclusively through the Church and restricted to the baptized. The Roman mission asserted that God was separate from creation because creation, including humanity, had been corrupted by evil. The world at large was an unholy realm.

Tragically, rather than seeing the merits of each mission, rather than honoring both in order to create a robust spirituality—a spirituality that on the one hand is rooted in tradition, and on the other hand open to the whole of life—a decision was made to grant the Roman mission sole authority over matters of belief and practice. Thus began the formal decline and influence of the Celtic mission, even though it has remained on the fringes of Christianity today. (Read here about the remarkable story of the Isle of Iona.)

Unquestionably Western societies have been radically influenced and impoverished by the Christianity that emerged from the Synod of Whitby. The outcome of this decision instigated and perpetuated three particular dualities that persist to this day and grossly impair how we see the complex world in which we live.

The dualities are:

• SPIRITUAL/MATERIAL

• US/THEM

• ALL GOOD/ALL BAD

 While this moment in ancient history doesn’t explain every conflict we face, nor is this the singular cause for the current degradation of humanity and creation. But I suspect that this way of seeing the world has, over the centuries, seeped into and tainted how we as Western people view ourselves, see the “other,” and relate to creation itself. Our capacity to see each other and the world we live in has been tragically diminished because of this all but unacknowledged and unchallenged moment in history.

Over the next few weeks, I’d like to offer my reflections on each of these three binaries that are the result of this tragic decision to eliminate Celtic spirituality from orthodox Christian faith. I hope to consider, along with you, how we all have been unknowingly impoverished from viewing life through such simplistic and limiting lenses. I want to consider how we as Westerners, whether religious or not, have borne the unnecessary burden of these dualities, which have in turn impaired our relationships with one another, the Christian faith, and the Church. 

And finally, I want to dream a bit. I want to muse on some “What ifs?”

·        What if we had inherited Celtic sensibilities instead of (unconsciously) absorbing

Augustinian/Roman ones?

·        How might our world view have changed?

·        If this had been our trajectory, how would it alter the present polarities that seem to be

ripping our country apart at the seams?

So stay tuned, if you’re intrigued. And while you’re at it, consider purchasing your own copy of Listening for the Heartbeat of God by J. Philip Newell. It’s a short, readable read. (And if you like history, as I do, you will find it quite fascinating.) I believe we have been robbed of something precious when Celtic spirituality—clearly a threat to religious power—was excluded from the foundational teachings of the Christian Church. Our society and the Church are undoubtedly much the poorer for it!