Acadia Divinity College

Three Early Missioners

(Three Celtic Christian Exemplars of Holistic Ministry)

Presented in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Course DMIN 8393X5
A Theology for Holistic Mission and Ministry
Dr. Ronald J. Sider

By

Christopher W. McMullen (100133729)

July 13, 2017

 Three Early Missioners
(Three Celtic Christian Exemplars of Holistic Ministry)

Introduction.

In calling evangelicals to the practice of holistic ministry and mission, Dr. Ronald J.

Sider has called for a balance of Good News and Good Works. Is it too much hope that a

sustained worldwide political movement by Biblical Christians working for justice, life, peace,

and freedom could persuade selfish, materialistic voters to make the necessary sacrifices?1 He

does not think so. Through Evangelicals for Social Action and other coalitions and move-

ments, Sider continues to teach and work for his vision that (as he wrote in 1979), The church

should consist of communities of loving defiance.2 Such a vision requires a church that is quite

distinct from the wider culture in which it serves. It must also be different from the historic

settled or Christendom churches of Western society. As Al Tizon argues, Christian ministry

in todays global context requires a Mission as Transformation that as thoroughly moves

churches in the Western world beyond private chaplaincies to a largely unconverted culture, as it

must inspire believers in the two-thirds world to move beyond both traditional evangelism, and

development or liberation models. The church is called to attest and proleptically enact the

Kingdom of God as both present and future, both societal and individual, both physical and

spiritual.... It grows like a mustard seed, both judging and transforming the present age.3

I am personally interested in emerging models of post-Christendom mission in the

English-speaking world that are consciously inspired by the spirituality and heritage of the

1
Ronald J. Sider, Good News and Good Works. A Theology for the Whole Gospel (Grand Rapids MI: Baker
Publishing Group, 1993), p. 193.
2
Ronald J. Sider, Christ and Violence (Scottdale PA: Herald Press, 1979), p.79.
3
Al Tizon, Transformation after Lausanne. Radical Evangelical Mission in Global-Local Perspective
(Eugene OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2008), p. 254.

[1]
Celtic mission in the British Isles and eventually throughout Europe. Missioners and teachers

such as Ray Simpson,4 Michael Mitton,5 Roger Ellis and Chris Seaton,6 and in a more critical

and qualified way, Timothy Joyce7 and Ian Bradley,8 have all commended the theology and

practices of Celtic Christianity for a renewed, holistic Christian mission today. George G.

Hunters The Celtic Way of Evangelism says it all with its subtitle: How Christianity Can Reach

the West...Again.9

There has been a critical scholarly reaction to this movement. Donald E. Meek, himself a

Gaelic speaking Scottish highlander, carefully examines and critiques this movement in his book,

The Quest for Celtic Christianity.10 Even he, however, ends his book with the lyrics of Eleanor

Hulls famous hymn, Be Thou My Vision, and the hope that we may have a meaningful

encounter with real Celtic Christians, and also with their God, who was the focus of their vision,

and the motivation and consummation of their quest.11 Ian Bradley, whose book The Celtic Way

enjoyed six reprints, went on to write Celtic Christianity: Making Myths and Chasing Dreams,12

which he confesses ...can perhaps be best seen as an act of penance on the part of someone who

realized that his work had helped to fuel the current mood of Celto-mania and who was

conscious of the need for a critical academic study of the whole phenomenon of Celtic Christian

4
Ray Simpson, Celtic Christianity: Deep Roots for a Modern Faith (Vestal NY: Amchara Books, 2017) (An
earlier version was published in 1995 as Exploring Celtic Spirituality).
5
Michael Mitton, Exploring the Woven Cord: Strands of Celtic Christianity for the Church Today (London:
Dalton, Longman and Todd, 1995).
6
Rogers Ellis and Chris Seaton, New Celts: Following Jesus into Millennium 3 (Eastbourne UK: Kingsway
Publications, 1998.
7
Timothy Joyce, Celtic Christianity: A Sacred Tradition, a Vision of Hope. (Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 1998).
8
Ian Bradley, The Celtic Way (London: Dalton, Longman and Todd, 1993).
9
George G. Hunter III, The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West...Again.
(Nashville TN: Abingdon Press, 2000).
10
Donald E. Meek, The Quest for Celtic Christianity (Edinburgh: The Handsel Press Ltd., 2000).
11
Ibid., pp. 250 f.
12
Ian Bradley, Celtic Christianity: Making Myths and Chasing Dreams (Edinburgh University Press, 1999).

[2]
revivalism.13 In 2000 however Bradley then published Colonies of Heaven: Celtic Models for

Todays Church, which represents a major contribution to Celtic missional thought and praxis.

In my Doctor of Ministry research project I am planning to evaluate the degree to which

an intentional program of spiritual formation in a Celtic tradition may inspire and enable my

Anglican parishioners in a more missional expression of Christian discipleship. The concept of

mission of course was not even known before the sixteenth century, except with reference to

the Trinitys begetting of the Son and procession of the Holy Spirit.14 Yet the Celtic Christian

movements rapid conversion of the British peoples to Christ, and its extensive influence on the

continent, does suggest an activism of spiritual intensity, Good News and Good Works, that

may provide resources for a full recovery of Kingdom ministry and mission today.

I will examine three early Celtic Christian leaders, with an eye to what precedents may be

drawn from their saintly examples, for a holistic theology of mission today. Pelagius was a

Scots (which meant Irish) layman and spiritual director who ministered primarily in Rome (c.

360-418 AD). From Pelagius we may learn the truth that faith without works is dead (James

2:26). St. Patrick (c.?-493?), episcopal patron saint of Ireland and perhaps the Wests first true

missionary after St. Paul, illustrates an incarnational model of mission that addresses both

the social and spiritual dimensions of salvation. St. Columbanus (543-615 AD), an abbot who

founded over sixty monasteries in Europe, exemplifies discipleship as a Kingdom pilgrimage,

characterized by rigorous spiritual discipline, courageous witness, and compassionate ministry.

13
Ian Bradley, Ian. Colonies of Heaven: Celtic Models for Todays Church. London UK: Darton, Longman
& Todd, 2000), p. viii.
14
See my Transforming Mission: A Report on David J. Boschs Seminal Book (Presented in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Acadia Divinity College Course DMIN 8393 X5, A Theology for
Holistic Mission and Ministry for Dr. Ronald J. Sider, June 19, 2017), pp. 4,6 and 13.

[3]
 Pelagius: Faith without Works is Dead.

Pelagius ministered in Rome during very tragic times. The old Roman Empire had

collapsed, leaving the growing Roman Church as the only source of order and hope. Many of

Romes residents were adopting a nominal Christianity, and the churchs leaders, eager to

provide stability and grow in influence, offered a compromised, semi-pagan version of the faith

where a disciple of Jesus was not really distinguishable from a good Roman citizen. Still there

were many devout Christians in Rome who did want to live out their faith with Gospel integrity,

and these are the folks who followed and patronized the Irish layman. Pelagius was honoured by

even his antagonistic opponents, Jerome and Augustine, as a person of great personal sanctity

and evident gifts as a teacher and counsellor. At the time, the most competitive philosophy to

Christianity was Manichaeism. It taught an extreme dualism between good and evil, spirit and

matter, along with a deterministic dogma of predestination.15 Theodore De Bruyn suggests that

In fact, Pelagius appears to have developed his theological tenets precisely to counter

Manichean (or virtually Manichean) notions of creation, sin, redemption, and beatitude.16 But in

fact the themes he highlights in Pelagius, The goodness of creation, the capacity of all human

beings to choose between good and evil, the endurance of that capacity in spite of sinful habits,

the accounting for that capacity in Gods plan of salvation...17 are all common features of pre-

Augustinian Christian writing generally, and Celtic Christian spirituality in particular.18

15
For an outline of Rome and its Christian community in Pelagiuss day, see Peter Brown, Pelagius and His
Supporters: Aims and Environment. Journal of Theological Studies, New Series, XIX.1 (April 1968), pp.
93-114.
16
Theodore De Bruyn, trs. and ed., Pelagiuss Commentary on St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1993), p. 16.
17
Ibid.
18
See for example the collection of seven early Irish sermons (c. 790-820 AD) in Thomas OLoughlin,
Journeys on the Edges: The Celtic Tradition (New York: Maryknoll, 2000), pp. 114-131.

[4]
 Pelagius ...was annoyed by the way in which Augustines masterpiece, the Confessions,

had seemed merely to popularize the tendency toward a languid piety.19 In fact, Augustine

seemed to Pelagius to have been only partially converted from his nine years as a Manichee

hearer!20 This brought Pelagius into direct conflict with the African bishop, who lobbied the

pope and the emperor for his condemnation and exile from Rome. (Apart from an African synod,

in absentia, every church counsel which examined Pelagius, during his lifetime, fully exonerated

him.) That was the end of the spiritual director, who, in Noel Dermot ODonoghues tribute,

came as a simplifier from the Isles of the North to Rome, as a breath of cold fresh air into a city

then as now overwhelmed with the ambiguities of sophisticated self-interest parading as

orthodox Christianity.21

Pelagius is liberally and probably faithfully quoted in Augustines anti-Pelagian works,

but for the purposes of this paper his surviving commentary on Romans and several letters of

spiritual counsel to his students will be considered. People lead themselves far astray on

account of Gods patience, Pelagius comments on Romans 2:4. In contrast, he notes on Romans

2:7, to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will

give eternal life (NRSV): The reward for good work is awaited with patience because it is not

given in this life, but ones perseverance (Matthew 24:13) is certainly worthwhile, for those

who are being prepared to judge even the angels. (I Corinthians 6:3).22 In other words,

salvation for Pelagius is about being sanctified and prepared for ones eternal destiny and

19
Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo. A Biography (London UK: Faber and Faber, 1969), p. 343.
20
Brown, Augustine of Hippo, p. 46, 203 f., 370. Noel Dermot ODonoghue, The Angels Keep their Ancient
Places: Reflections on Celtic Spirituality (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 2001), p.119.
21
Noel Dermot ODonoghue, The Angels Keep their Ancient Places, p. 123.
22
Pelagiuss Commentary on St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans. Trs. and ed. Theodore De Bruyn, op.cit., pp.
70,71.

[5]
glorious vocation in the Kingdom of God. So on Romans 8:31 Pelagius comments, Paul ...wants

to show that no one can keep those who love God and are loved by God from attaining the glory

that has been promised, because the perfect love that is in them casts out every reason for mortal

fear (cf. I John 4: 18).23 Similarly, on Romans 5:5 he comments, From this we learn how God

loves us, because he has not only forgiven us our sins through the death of his Son, but has also

given us the Holy Spirit, who already shows us the glory of things to come.24

N.T. Wright speaks very much in the (Anglican!) tradition of Pelagius when he writes

that ...love is not our duty, it is our destiny.25 Such a vocation to glory and holiness, according

to Pelagius, will set Christians apart to a distinctive lifestyle of undiscriminating love and justice.

The Irish spiritual counselor was suspicious of the usual meaning of gratia in Roman society: a

bribe or payment for advancement or in reward for friendship. For him, God could not be a

dispenser of favours (gratiosus); he is not a respecter of persons (acceptor personarum), and he

would not choose some people arbitrarily. Christian morality must be based on justice towards

all.26 It is for this purpose that the (properly understood) grace of the Holy Spirit (on Romans

7:4) will set free the one whom the Law could not have set free (on Romans 7:25).27 Grace

will set the believer free to live in righteousness. It is in this way that none is saved by his own

merit, but all are saved in the same way by Gods grace (on Romans 5:1).28 On Romans 5:16,

Pelagius insists that salvation in Christ is as much his motivating example of righteousness, as it

23
Ibid., p. 113. (Like others of his day, Pelagius rarely uses the phrase Kingdom of God in its N.T. sense.)
24
Ibid., p. 90.
25
N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope. Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
(New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008), p. 288.
26
M. Forthomme Nicholson, Celtic Theology: Pelagius. James P. Mackey, ed., An Introduction to Celtic
Christianity (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1989), pp. 386-413; p. 400.
27
Pelagiuss Commentary on St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans, pp. 101 and 103.
28
Ibid, p. 89.

[6]
is the forgiveness of sins.29 He offered, by way of grace to overcome sin, teaching and example,

and in addition power through the Holy Spirit.30

These quotations should be sufficient to defend Pelagius from a charge of Pelagianism!

For Pelagius, however, grace does not simply excuse believers for their sin. Grace delivers

them from its effects. This is by restoring people in their original created freedom. In that sense,

commenting on Romans 12:6, he can say that each one receives as much as he believes.31 We

are saved by grace, through faith. But this is not a nominal consent to Christian dogmas, but an

activist faith that expresses itself in righteous living, and especially in love. We may remember

Siders pithy comment that The Bible includes only two instances of the passive word belief

and 173 instances of the active form believe (New Revised Standard Version).32 For Pelagius,

this sanctifying salvation will express itself in an activist love. Even not to do good is wrong.33

This maxim is repeated in his letters of counsel: The person who does no evil, yet also does no

good, cannot be considered good.34 Of those who have the first-fruits of the Spirit groaning

inwardly (Romans 8:23), Pelagius comments that believers groan for the unsaved.35 On Romans

10:15 Pelagius comments, Beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim peace, but the feet of

those who run after the vain things of this age are ugly and misshapen.36 Love fulfills the law:

29
Ibid, p. 95.
30
Ibid, p. 98.
31
Ibid, p. 133.
32
Ronald J. Sider, Philip N. Olson, and Heidi Holland Unruh. Churches that Make a Difference. Reaching
Your Community with Good News and Good Works (Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2002), p. 174.
33
Pelagiuss Commentary on St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans, p. 138 (on Romans 13:10).
34
Pelagius, The Letters of Pelagius. Celtic Soul Friend. Trs. and ed. Robert Van de Weyer (Evesham UK:
Arthur James Ltd., 1995), p. 61.
35
Pelagiuss Commentary on St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans, pp. 110 f.
36
Ibid., p. 123.

[7]
...anyone who is able to help someone close to death in whatever situation of needs kills that

person if he does not come to his aid.37 Even the elderly may lovingly serve others in prayer.38

This sort of Good News and Good Works spirituality will express itself in moral and

even social activism. Several authors have pointed out the intense preoccupation of Pelagius

and the Pelagians with public morality and social justice.39 Peter Brown notes that The most

tender passages in the cold exhortations of the Pelagians are those which describe the horror of

public executions, and urge the Christian to feel the pain of others as if it were his own, and to

be moved to tears by the grief of other men. This emotive quality is very different from the

philosophical detachment with which Augustine can view the infliction of physical pain.40 Nor

is this Christian compassion limited to the human world. When Jesus commands us to love our

neighbours, he does not only mean our human neighbours; he means all the animals and birds,

insects and plants, amongst whom we live. 41 Created in Gods image, we must take care of our

fellow creatures, and certainly not abuse them. But the person who takes pleasure in seeing

animals healthy is using his power according to Gods will.42 As he wrote a mature Christian:

And the church is called to be prophetic, proclaiming Gods message; priestly, channelling
Gods grace to the world; and royal, exemplifying Gods law. Individually none of us is
worthy of anointment. But together we become like Jesus, anointed by God himself.43

Pelagiuss vision for the church was indeed like Siders community of loving defiance.

An authentic faith will be active in good works. For Pelagius, faith without works is dead.

37
Ibid. (on Romans 13:11), p. 139.
38
The Letters of Pelagius. Celtic Soul Friend, op.cit., p. 74.
39
M. Forthomme Nicholson, Celtic Theology: Pelagius, op.cit., p. 398.
40
Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo, p. 349.
41
The Letters of Pelagius. Celtic Soul Friend, p. 72.
42
Ibid., p. 73.
43
Ibid., p. 51.

[8]
 Patrick: Mission for the Whole Person, the Whole People.

Two writings of St. Patrick survive. They are both intensely personal and full of spiritual

fervour and pastoral love. His Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus was a widely circulated

condemnation of some nominally Christian British raiders for their capturing and enslaving a

large number of recent Irish converts. They have filled their homes with the plunder taken from

dead Christians and they live by this. Wretched men! They do not know the poisonous lethal

food that they share with their children and friends.44 Patrick warns of eternal condemnation for

both the soldiers, and all who cooperate or even simply resign to their terror. Perhaps because of

this very intervention against a British chieftain,45 serious opposition arose in Britain against

Patricks mission in Ireland. This along with rumours and questions about his authority as a quite

unconventional bishop moved him to write his Confessio, or (as T. OLoughlin translates the

title), Patricks Acknowledgement of Gods Dealings with Him.

So it would not be right nor proper to do anything but tell you all of the many great
blessings and grace which the Lord chooses to give me in this land of my captivity. I
tell you these things because this is how we return thanks to God, that after being
corrected and having come to an awareness of God, that we glorify and bear witness to
his wonderful works in the presence of every nation under heaven.46

From these two writings missiologists can gain not only a sense of the spiritual character of the

person Thomas Cahill calls the worlds first true missionary since St. Paul.47 Writers like John

Finney48 and George Hunter49 also discern an implicit yet distinctive missiology for today.

44
Patrick, Address to the Soldiers of Coroticus, in Thomas OLoughlin, ed. and trs., Saint Patrick: The
Man and His Works (London: SPCK, 1999P, pp. 93-105, p.101 ( 13).
45
R.P.C. Hanson, The Mission of St. Patrick, in James P. Mackey, ed., An Introduction to Celtic
Christianity (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1989), pp. 22-44, p. 38.
46
Patricks Acknowledgement of Gods Dealings with Him in OLoughlin, op.cit., pp. 52-89, p.54 ( 3).
47
Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization. The Untold Story of Irelands Heroic Role from the Fall
of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe. (New York NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1995), p.107.
48
John Finney, Recovering the Past: Celtic and Roman Mission (London: Dalton, Longman and Todd, 1996).
49
George G. Hunter III, The Celtic Way of Evangelism (see n.9 p.2 above).

[9]
 Patrick was a British (today one might say Welsh) son of a deacon who was kidnapped

by Irish pirates and enslaved as a shepherd. In his isolation and enforced fasting, Patricks

nominal faith came alive. But then, as I arrived in Ireland and was looking after flocks the

whole time, I prayed frequently each day. And more and more the love of God and the fear of

him grew in me and my faith was increased and my spirit enlivened.50 In dreams, God guided

him to escape and return to his home. He then sought training and ordination to the episcopate in

response to a call from God in three successive dreams, followed by a contested but successful

confirmation by the British church,51 to return as a missionary to the land of his captivity.

It is he who in the last days heard me, so that I an ignorant man should dare take up so
holy and wonderful a work as this: that I should in some way imitate those to whom the
Lord foretold what was about to occur when his gospel [of the kingdom will be preached
to the whole world]52 as a testimony to all nations before the end of the world.53

This eschatological sense energized and inspired Patrick in his mission, as much as the spiritual

disciplines of prayer and fasting learned during his six years of isolated slavery. The above quote

illustrates how his Confessio is full of allusions to Pauls epistles (as well as other Scriptures),

whose example inspired Patrick to engage in an energetic, peripatetic ministry of travelling from

Irish tribe to tribe, healing, teaching and baptizing hundreds; training the appropriately spiritually

gifted converts in the disciplines of prayer and Scripture study; setting up churches (communities

of people, not buildings Celtic Christians worshipped God in the cathedral of Gods great

creation); and then moving on with a few chosen assistants to begin a new mission work.

Though readers of Acts and Pauls Epistles today may take such a missiology for granted,

in Patricks day it was something new. Speaking of other clergy in Columbanuss time in the

50
Patricks Acknowledgement of Gods Dealings with Him in OLoughlin, op.cit., pp. 60-61 ( 16).
51
Ibid., pp. 66-71 ( 23-32).
52
This bracketed phrase is OLoughlins addition to his translation.
53
Ibid., pp. 72 f. ( 34).

[10]
partially Christianized, decaying Roman Empire, Cahill writes: It never occurred to these church-

men to venture beyond a few well-tended streets into the rough-hewn mountain settlements of the

simpler Sueves. To Columbanus, however, a man who will take no step to proclaim the Good

News beyond the safety and comfort of his own elite circle is a poor excuse for a bishop.54

Columbanus was spiritually formed by the same Celtic missionary tradition that Patrick had

initiated two centuries before. He followed the Irish bishop in practising a spirituality that Noel

Dermot ODonoghue describes as strongly elemental and nature-centred, an asceticism set in the

open fields and woods and mountains, among the animals that it was his business to feed every

day. Second, it is an asceticism of prayer, centered in constant, reiterated prayer. So it is, wrote

Patrick, that I give thanks to him who strengthened me in all things: that he did not impede me

in my chosen journey, nor in my works which I learned from Christ my Lord.55 In Patrick we can

see the activist faith which Pelagius taught, fully applied to evangelistic ministry.

Patricks eschatological conviction was that the world would end shortly after the last of

the Gentiles, the Irish, living as they were at the end of the known world, came to Christ.

This is exactly what the Lord warns and teaches about in the Gospel... this gospel of
the kingdom will be preached throughout the entire universe, as a testimony to all
nations; and then the end will come. [Matthew 24:14]56

It is remarkable, writes R.P.C. Hanson, that one who thought that there would be almost no

future for the world should in fact have laboured with such success that he laid the foundations

of Irish Christianity for the next thousand years.57 As with Pelagius, for Patrick ones faith in

Gods Kingdom will naturally express itself in works reaching out in genuine love for others.

54
Cahill, op.cit., p. 188.
55
Patricks Acknowledgement... in OLoughlin, op.cit., p. 70 ( 30).
56
Ibid., p. 76 ( 40). The Scripture reference is from OLoughlins footnote.
57
Hanson, op.cit., p. 35.

[11]
This sharp eschatological view combined with Patricks deep worshipful awareness of the triune

God in his creation, incarnation and gift of the Holy Spirit,58 to energize what Ronald Sider calls

for among committed Christians today: an incarnational Kingdom Christianity.59

A touching example of Patricks loving earthly humanity is seen in his remembrance of

the faith of a new recruit: A blessed Irish woman of noble birth, a most beautiful adult who I

had baptized, who spurned family and cultural expectations to offer herself for Christian

service.60 Cahill notes that such admiration of female beauty would have unnerved Augustine!61

But of all these women, those held in slavery have to work hardest; they are continually

harassed and even have to suffer being terrorized. But the Lord gives grace to many of his maid-

servants...62 Hunter noted: Patricks achievements included social dimensions. He was the first

public man to speak and to crusade against slavery. The Irish slave-trade ended in his century.63

Milton Friesen contrasts Patricks success in building a vital church with the apparent

failure of Palladius, who briefly ministered in Ireland in 431 AD, the year before Patricks

probable arrival. Palladius certainly must have brought his early monastic tendencies with him

on his mission but that alone did not automatically ensure success: approach, temperament,

spiritual zeal and a general compatibility with the Celtic culture proved to be essential.64 The

58
See Patricks opening creed in ibid., p. 54-55 ( 4).
59
Sider, Good News and Good Works, op.cit., p.183.
60
Patricks Acknowledgement, op.cit., p. 78 ( 42).
61
Cahill, op.cit., p. 134.
62
Patricks Acknowledgement, p. 78 ( 42).
63
George G. Hunter III, The Celtic Way of Evangelism, op.cit., p. 23. Thomas Cahill also makes this claim
(op.cit., p.114). Both perhaps ignore St. John Chrysostom (c. 349-437 AD) who shocked the imperial court in
Constantinople with his remarkable preaching against slavery. Chris L. de Wet, Chrysostom and the
Discourse of Slavery in Early Christianity (Oakland CA: University of California Press, 2015).
64
Milton J. Friesen, Monasticism in 5th 7th c. Ireland: A Study of the Establishment of Christianity in Irish-
Celtic Culture. Religious Studies and Theology 23.2 (2004), pp. 79-98, pp. 90-91.

[12]
missional qualities of monasticism in Patricks heritage will be considered with relation to

Columbanus below. At this point we may note the incarnational nature of Patricks ministry.

Patrick, the former British slave of the Irish, had become a full-fledged Irishman himself. When

he cries out in his pain, Is it a shameful thing... that we have been born in Ireland? we know

that he has left the old civilization forever and has identified himself completely with the Irish.65

Patrick practiced a truly incarnational model of Christian mission. On the one had he

completely identified himself with what must have felt like a barbaric, alien culture compared to

his Romanized British upbringing. On the other hand he and the communities he established

became ...a living model of Jesuss dawning kingdom. That is Ronald Siders first of four

ways in which the church may influence public policy. The third is by transforming the local

culture in which believers are called to live and work: Christians help shape the cultural norms

in society first by their common life, then by their ideas, writings, and artistic productions.66

Patricks gift to the Irish was his Christianity the first de-Romanized Christianity in
human history.... which transformed Ireland into Something New, something never seen
before a Christian culture, where slavery and human sacrifices became unthinkable,
and warfare, though impossible for humans to eradicate, diminished markedly.67

Patrick and his successors, with their semi-monastic Christian communities and

disciplines, preaching, writing, and, later, artistic accomplishments like the famous Celtic high

crosses and illuminated manuscripts, along with their ministries of healing and opposition to

slavery, most effectively practised mission for the whole person, and indeed the whole

people of Ireland. His was a stellar and influential example of truly holistic mission.

65
Cahill, op.cit., p. 113.
66
Ronald J. Sider, Just Politics: A Guide for Christian Engagement (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2012), p. 194.
67
Cahill, op.cit., p. 148.

[13]
 Columbanus: Discipleship as a Pilgrimage for Gods Kingdom.

Robert Schuman hailed St. Columbanus as the patron saint of those who seek to

construct a united Europe.68 He is credited with the foundation of anywhere between sixty69 and

ninety-four70 monasteries, principally in France, Germany and Italy. From the famous monastery

at Bangor, Columbanus set out to the continent as a Celtic peregrinatio with the requisite twelve

companions in 597. He died at the monastery he founded at Bobbio, Italy, in 615. The word

Monastery now summons up images of isolated, disinterested monks engaged in non-worldly

worship, but this was not the case for Irish monastic communities. While there would be an inner

circle of ascetics responsible for the prayer-life, scripture copying and spiritual direction so

central to the community, they would be outnumbered by the manaig, laypeople, often married

and with children, who were under less ascetical disciplines. The requirements of agriculture,

providing for the regions poor, and practising a generous hospitality to refugees and visitors

meant that there was much coming-and-going from these alternative Christian communities.

They also functioned as de-facto penitentiaries for both voluntary pilgrims, and those who had

been sentenced and exiled to their precincts by the civil authorities.71 In continental Europe the

members of such communities were often the only ones in society who were literate and learned.

Carol Richards makes a case that the Irish scientific understanding (based on Druidic astronomy)

that the earth and other planets orbited the sun, as against the Ptolemaic doctrine sponsored by

the Roman church, was the real issue behind the disagreement of Columbanus and other Celtic

to the Roman dating of Easter.72 Europe at the time was decimated by barbarian raids and

68
Lehane, op.cit., p.147.
69
Hunters estimate, op.cit., p. 39.
70
Phyllis G. Jestice, Encyclopedia of Irish Spirituality (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Inc., 2000), p. 82.
71
See Hughes and Hamlin, op.cit., pages 5-18 an archeologically informed description of Celtic monasticism.
72
Carol Richards, Columbanus: Poet, Preacher, Statesman, Saint (Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2015), pp. 124 f.

[14]
wars, famine, plague, and many other consequences of the end of the Pax Romana. It was

Columbanus and his heirs whose missions, according to Thomas Cahill, explain How the Irish

Saved Civilization.73 Donald Meek explains that is is debatable whether such expeditions

always amounted to mission in our sense of the word, but it is clear that the monasteries

established by such men [Columbanus and his monks] had (in Richard Fletchers phrase)

diffusive potential in spreading the message of Christianity and permeating society with the

Christian ethic.74

The faith and practice of the energetic and inspirational leader at the heart of this greatly

civilizing mission may be studied from surviving sermons,75 letters,76 and a monastic Rule.77

Dolphus Weary insists from his work in building and restoring communities that the

gospel doesnt end with a person praying to receive Christs salvation. It must go on into living

with biblical values and with showing compassion for all needs of people.78 Columbanus thus

taught in intricate detail the Gospel principle that He spurns the world who conquers himself,

who dies to his vices before he dies by nature.79 Only such a discipline will free Christians to

love others in self-forgetting courage and humility. Thus we must gladly lay down whatever we

love apart from Christ for Christs sake; first the life by which the body is quickened in union

73
Cf. n.47 p. 9 above.
74
Meek, The Quest for Celtic Christianity, op.cit., p. 133.
75
Sermons of Columbanus. Tr. G.S.M. Walker, ed. Emer Purcell. University College, Cork. Corpus of
Electronic Texts Edition, Second Draft, revised and corrected. http://celt.ucc.ie/published/T201053/.
76
Letters of Columbanus. Tr. G.S.M. Walker, ed. Ruth Murphy. University College, Cork. Corpus of
Electronic Texts Edition, Second Draft, revised and corrected. .http://celt.ucc.ie/published/T201054/.
77
The Rule for Monks by Columbanus, Oliver Davies, trs and ed., with Thomas OLoughlin, Celtic
Spirituality. (New York NY: Paulist Press, 1999), pp. 245-256.
78
Dolphus Weary and William Hendricks. I Aint Comin Back (Wheaton IL: Tyndale House Publishers,
1990), p. 126.
79
Sermon III, 3, Sermons of Columbanus, op.cit., p. 75.

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with the soul ...so that he who lives, let him no live to himself, but to Him Who for him died. II

Cor. 5:15.80 William Hendricks says of Weary: The ministry at Mendenhall was striking in its

attempt to nourish the spirit of each participant so that he or she would have something genuine

to offer others in need. This value on the spiritual, inner life resulted in mature, responsible

people, not just a proliferation of well-intentioned programs.81

An example of Columbanus practical application of this principle of sanctification for

the sake of serving others is his Rule 3, On Food and Drink.

The monks food and drink should be poor and taken in the evening, in order to avoid
satiety and inebriation, so that they sustain life without harming it: vegetables, beans,
flour mixed with water, together with a small loaf of bread in case the stomach is
burdened and the mind confused.... And we must eat every day because every day we
must advance along our path; every day we must pray, labour, and read.82
In this way Columbanuss monasteries will have maximum food left over to feed the poor, as

well as ministers in top physical and spiritual condition for prayer and serving others. The

monks discipline is meant to be practical, and not punitive or abstemious. Even beer is

permitted, but not to the point of inebriation; and an extra loaf may be taken to avoid poor

health or compromised mental acuity! Ronald Sider insists that Simple personal lifestyles are

extremely important now both as visible albeit imperfect models pointing to the coming

kingdom and as an authentication of our call to government for sweeping systematic change.83

As Columbanus pointedly preached, in controversial contrast to the tyrannical rulers of his day,

Let us not be painters of anothers image; for he is the painter of a despots image, who
is fierce, wrathful, proud.... Then lest perhaps we should import into ourselves despotic
images, let Christ paint his image in us, as he does by saying, My peace I give to you,
My peace I leave to you. John 14:27.84
80
Sermon X, 2, ibid, p. 103.
81
William Hendricks in Weary and Hendricks, op.cit., p.158.
82
The Rule for Monks by Columbanus, op.cit., p. 248.
83
Sider, Christ and Violence, p. 93.
84
Sermon XI, 2, op.cit., p. 109.

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 In todays consumerist culture, where people have been conditioned to expect either a pill

or a gadget to alleviate every inconvenience, Columbanus monastic rule and sermon exhorta-

tions seem harsh. Stereotypical images of self-flagellating submissives must be avoided, though,

if Columbanus spiritual discipline is to be appreciated.

Therefore whosoever wishes to be made into Gods dwelling-place, should strive to

make himself humble and peaceable, that he may be known to be Gods servant....
Then, lest perhaps we should labour without fruit, let us take pains to be freed from our
vices by Gods help, that therefore we may be adorned with virtues.85

B. Lehane writes that in their sixth and seventh-century context of savagery, the Irish abbots

...regulations and sanctions seem less harsh. They are not gentle, but they are distinguished by

two things; an impartiality to all men, and the consistency of their cause the improvement of

human souls, the provision of a better chance to enter heaven.86 Perhaps a better description of

Columbanuss goal would be a kingdom-living that is as evident now as it will be glorified in

eternity. A central key for incarnational Kingdom Christianity, according to Ronald Sider,

is to teach new converts the full truth about Gods concern for the poor and oppressed. Then as

new Christians become transformed persons freed from destructive habits and begin to enjoy

material abundance, they will reach out in wholistic mission to their poor neighbours.87 This

was also the eschatologically informed purpose of Columbanuss teaching on self-discipline:

Wherefore if we are sated, if we drink, wretched men that we are, let us eat here in part
and not entirely, let us eat what is needful, not what panders; let us eat with the poor,
drink with the poor, share with the poor, that even so we may deserve to share with the
poor in that place where they shall be satisfied who here for Christs sake hunger and
thirst after righteousness. Matthew 5:688

85
Sermon II, 2, op.cit., p. 71.
86
Lehane, op.cit., p. 161. (I regret the gender-exclusive terminology for humanity quoted here and elsewhere.)
87
Sider, Good News and Good Works, p.182.
88
Sermon VII, 2, op.cit., p. 93.

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 A final look at Columbanuss eschatological outlook. We have been buying our mental

furniture for so long in Platos factory, complains N.T. Wright, that we have come to take for

granted a basic ontological contrast between spirit in the sense of something immaterial and

matter in the sense of something material, solid, physical.89 As a result it is easy to read his

exhortations about preparing for eternity in the wrong way. Therefore must we pass by the royal

road to the city of the living God, through affliction of the flesh and contrition of the heart,

through bodily toil and spiritual humility, through our practice, the substance of our lawful duty,

not the need of merit, and, what is greater than these, through Christs grace, faith, hope, and

charity.90 The promise of a Christians destiny in Gods Kingdom, for Columbanus, provides

motive for growth, service and witness in this life, and not an escape from responsibility.

Let us not love the roadway rather than the homeland, lest we lose our eternal home; for
we have such a home that we ought to love it. Therefore let this principle abide with us,
that on the road, we so live as travellers, as pilgrims, as guests of the world, entangled by
no lusts, longing with no earthly desires, but let us fill our minds with heavenly and
spiritual impressions, singing with grace and power, When shall I come and appear before
the face of my God? For my soul thirsts for the mighty and living God, Ps. 41:2.91

The image of life as a pilgrimage is key to Columbanuss self-understanding as a

follower of Jesus. His word for this is peregrinatio. Since all humans are pilgrims, He was

known for his championing of minority causes and for his tolerance of people who were different

or marginal.92 So wrote Timothy Joyce. Brendan Lehane added: In his charity to the peasants

and obstinacy to the ecclesiastical hierarchy he became a kind of religious Robin Hood, and

where he settled it seemed that the poor and the meek were at last inheriting the earth.93 When

one is a citizen of the Kingdom, all other distinctions become relative. Perhaps a case could be
89
Wright, op.cit., p. 153.
90
Letters of Columbanus, op.cit., Letter IV, 5, p. 33.
91
Sermon VIII, 2, p.cit., p. 97.
92
Timothy Joyce, Celtic Christianity, op.cit., p. 53.
93
Lehane, op.cit., p.166.

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made that this understanding is the basis for modern human rights and democracy. At any rate,

the point for now shall be Cardinal Tomas OFiaichs, that for Columbanus as for all the Irish

missionaries, peregrinatio had two motivations. The first was the sanctification of ones soul

through the abandoning of ones security and beloved homeland, to seek and serve Christ in a

new place, unknown to the pilgrim but equally beloved by the Creator. A secondary motive

which soon came to the fore among the peregrine was the desire to spread Christs kingdom.94

In his Colonies of Heaven, Celtic Models for Todays Church, Ian Bradley offers six

exemplary practices from the Celtic mission that may improve and guide Christian mission

today.95 The most important one, for Bradley, is Pilgrimage. Contrasting the Celtic under-

standing with modern tourist notions of pilgrimage, he quotes one of Columbanuss sermons:

What then are you, human life? You are the roadway of mortals, not their life,
beginning from sin, enduring up till death... So you are the way to life, not life; for you
are a real way, but not an open one, long for some, short for others, broad for some,
narrow for others, joyful for some, sad for others, for all alike hasting and irrevocable.
A way is what you are, a way, but you are not manifest to all; for many see you, and
few understand you to be a way. For you are so wily and so winsome that it is granted
to few to know you as a way. Thus you are to be questioned and not believed or
warranted, traversed, not occupied, wretched human life; for on a roadway none
dwells but walks, that those who walk upon the way may dwell in their homeland.96

Bradley goes on to confess ...that in all my writings on Celtic Christianity I have not made

nearly enough of its eschatological dimension.97 Christians are to be an advent people, living

actively in this life, but always called and informed by and the values of the Kingdom of God.

Christians today need to re-learn, from Columbanus, that true discipleship will be a pilgrimage

for Gods Kingdom, that loves, teaches, and serves all others who should be invited on the way.

94
Tomas OFiaich, Irish Monks on the Continent, in James P. Mackey, ed., An Introduction to Celtic
Christianity (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1989), pp. 101-139, p. 104.
95
See n.13, p.3 above.
96
Bradley, Colonies of Heaven, pp. 200 f. Columbanus, Sermon V, 1, op.cit., p. 85.
97
Colonies of Heaven, p. 241.

[19]
 Conclusion: Three Christian Exemplars of Holistic Ministry

Dr. Ronald J. Sider and his associates in Evangelicals for Social Action have called the

Church to a reintegration of evangelism and social action in a missiology that is properly

oriented by Christs announcement that The time is fulfilled, and he kingdom of God has come

near; repent, and believe in the good news. (Mark 1: 15) This paper has attempted to evaluate

the claim that the current renaissance of Celtic Christianity may provide a way to a more

holistic practice of Christian mission and ministry. In this all too brief survey, consideration has

been given to three central figures who are frequently favoured in the promotion of Celtic

spirituality: Pelagius, St. Patrick, and St. Columbanus. Some of their own surviving writings

have been examined. It has been gratifying to see, however, how often modern proponents of a

revived Celtic mission, and even a couple critics, have referred to these early Irish Christian

leaders and their ministries.

Al Tizon notes that an area that requires further development among Transformationists

is the role of spirituality in holistic mission.98 My hope is that this paper has demonstrated the

degree to which a Celtic-guided spiritual formation may indeed inspire and enable Christians

today to exercise Kingdom ministry in a post-Christendom environment. Tizon himself goes on

to say that It would behoove Transformational mission theologians, for example, to look at the

emerging phenomenon of what has become known as the New Monasticism, a movement

among a younger generation of evangelicals who are recovering ancient practices of mysticism,

simplicity and radical mission.99 In doing so, radical evangelicals may find much help in the

old monasticism of Pelagius, Patrick, Columbanus, and other pioneering Celtic missioners.

98
Al Tizon, op.cit., p.232.
99
Ibid, pp. 232 f.

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