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From Volume 2, Number 2, Autumn 1995 Paul, An Apostle to the Celts by the Rev'd Ernest Seddon Opinions differ as to when and how Christianity came to the Celts. Although according to University of Aberdeen Lecturer Ian Bradley, "It is a fair bet that it was via the Romans," other speculations include a personal visit of Joseph of Arimathea as recounted in the Glastonbury legend. Over 40 years ago I saw a history of the Welsh Baptists which traced back to Paul, Priscilla and Aquila. Unfortunately, in the dim recesses of youth this was seen and dismissed as interesting but not significant. Alban is thought to have been executed circa 209 for aiding a fugitive Christian. 'British' (Brythonic Celts) were involved in ecumenical councils in the early 300s A.D. almost a century before Innocent I, Bishop of Rome, assumed the position of Pope, after having been asked to render a judgment (opinion?) in the Pelagian controversy. It is significant that the Eastern Church accepted neither his judgment not his claim. According to most authorities the Celts migrated from central Europe into Italy, Gaul, and Asia Minor (Anatolia in modern Turkey). About 200 B.C. they were eventually confined in Anatolia to the area which became known as Galatia. Despite the onslaught of the Romans and later Germanic pressures which drove the Celts to the western fringes of Europe, the tenacity of the Celtic spirit caused them to make and to continue to make a contribution to the world far beyond their numbers. What other saint has so taken over a day as has St. Patrick, a British saint (Brythonic Celt) the patron saint of the Irish (Goidelic Celts)? Probably no other people have such a strong cultural spirit. A Celt is a Celt whether born in Celtic homelands or in 'exile.' Although the Anatolian Celts were eventually regionalized into Galatia, there is strong reason to believe that their influence spread across the whole area of Asia Minor. It is most unlikely therefore that Paul would not have been aware of the Celtic culture and religious attitudes as he himself came from Tarsus in Cilicia on the very borders of Galatia in Anatolia. So although Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews1, studied under Gamaliel2, he surely would have been very conscious of 'hoi keltoi' (the Celts) Christianity eventually triumphed over and changed the Roman Empire in the 4th century, but the Celts did not change so much as adapt. While secular and then religious Rome subjugated the Celts, in over 2,000 years neither has been able to suppress them. There are traditions within Celtic folk lore, that certain Druids were cognizant of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ as it as taking place and that they were aware of who and what He was (is). Taliesin, a Welsh bard, maintained that "Christ the Word was from the beginning our Teacher, and we never lost his teaching. Christianity was in Asia a new thing, but here was never a time when the Druids held not its doctrines." Bradley comments, "This is probably more of a theological statement picking up the idea of the pre-existent logos."3 The purpose here is not to trace the origins or the development of Celtic Christianity, (this has and is being done by far more capable celtic scholars that I) but rather to suggest a somewhat different approach to the writing of St. Paul. In Acts Paul states quite strongly that he will henceforth go to the gentiles, and this is tacitly understood to refer to the Roman peoples, as his missionary journeys were in Roman occupied territories. Nevertheless, it would be misguided to consider that all these people were thoroughly Romanized. Paul writes to the Churches in Galatia, the area into which King Antigonus had settled the Celts. It would seem therefore, that this letter in particular would have a Celtic flavor. In addition, the Churches in Ephesus and Colosse were located in an area that had been heavily influenced by the earlier Celts.Paul is not a pantheist, but rather a panentheist. This being the case he can say in the letter addressed to the Ephesians, "[a]nd God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,"4 without any possibility of the later controversy between practical and positional theology arising. For Paul to be 'in Christ' on earth is to be 'in Christ' in the heavenlies. Panentheism requires a strong immanental theology, a theology in which Incarnational theology finds its fulfillment, after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the reality and presence of the triune God in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Paul, while strongly trinitarian, is clearly monotheistic, recognizing the indivisibility of the Godhead, and the presence of all in the presence of one. Thus when Jesus says, "Abide in me and I in you,"5 we are surely to understand that He is speaking of an awareness of the presence of God in the midst of a secular society, and not some vague esotericism. Holiness ceases to be 'otherworldly' and becomes the presence of God working through consecrated man toward the full renewal of creation.6 Paul's writings clearly show this close relationship between the Creator and creation, also the positive effects of good and the negative effects of evil on all creation. The natural world responds to the attitudes of good and evil exhibited in humankind. This is the inevitable outcome of Paul's saturation in Old Testament scripture. Genesis 3:17 indicates a definite connection between man's sin and the condition of nature. Man sinned --earth suffered. One can assume that an equal and opposite effect is also true; man lives righteously -- earth is healed. This would seem to be the inference from Romans 8:19-21. In pre-Christian Celtic religion an interaction existed between the worldly and otherworldly which was carried over into Celtic Christianity. The Kingdom of Heaven was a present reality and not a futuristic hope, and the whole of creation a tangible expression of the reality and presence of the Lord. As humanity was affected by creation so creation was affected by humanity. NOTES |