Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation | 
| Author: J. Philip Newell
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 107161
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0470183500
Dewey Decimal Number: 230.089916
EAN: 9780470183502
ASIN: 0470183500
Publication Date: May 16, 2008
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Product Description
Christ of the Celts "I explore the Celtic image of Christ as the Memory of what we have forgotten. He remembers the dance of the universe and the harmony that is deep within all things. He is the Memory also of who we are."
—from the Prelude "Diagnosing the human soul with a longing for peace in the face of fear and fragmentation nurtured by global political forces and fundamentalisms, Newell offers the ancient traditions of Celtic Christianity as a way forward in healing humankind and the earth."
—Publishers Weekly "This graceful, wise, and important book is a superb introduction to the treasures of Celtic Christianity for our time."
—Marcus Borg, author, The Heart of Christianity
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 A Trustworthy Guide For These Turbulent Times June 21, 2008
Review of "Christ of the Celts," by J. Philip Newell, Jossey-Bass, 2008
This book is much more than an introduction to the treasures of Celtic Christianity for our time. It is a response to what the author and many others see as a deep longing for peace in the world among nations and peoples today, a longing against which are ranged forces of fear and fragmentation "that are wedded to the mightiest political powers and religious fundamentalisms of the world today." A scholar of Celtic Christianity, Newell presents its unifying vision of a harmony that is at the core of all life, and its vision of Jesus of Nazareth as a unifying figure for today, a figure that has been controlled and obscured by the official Church from the fourth century on. Jesus and his ministry, Newell says, is not the property of the Church; he belongs to the world, to every religious tradition. He speaks to everyone, just as he spoke to everyone during the very brief career of what he regarded as his ministry, to heal the sick, free the downtrodden and oppressed, and turn the political and religious powers on its collective head, not by force, but by revealing how they systematically oppress the needy by exerting control over whom they regard as their "subjects". Newell documents this process very well within the history of Christianity, which moved away from a free-spirited "people of the Way" and into a tightly-controlled, imperially modeled hierarchy that robbed people of their freedom and their self-confidence, and punishing those who maintained a point of view more in line with that of Jesus, who preached and lived unity and loving-kindness.
It is high time for a change, and Newell's beautiful book is a clarion call for a more open and unifying spirit within Christianity and between people of all faiths. He is not alone here, and it is high time: Walter Wink ("The Human Being"), Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer ("Jesus Against Christianity", "Saving Christianity From Empire" and "Is Religion Killing Us?"), Philip Gulley and James Mulholland ("If Grace Is True: Why God Will Save Every Person") join him, as do Desmond Tutu, Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama, and many, many others from across and beyond the religious spectrum. It is time that we listen to these people as guides for our future and the future of our world. It is way past high time for us to ignore and repudiate those who call for division, specialness, violence, resentment and hatred.
"Christ of the Celts" is a very important companion for anyone who seeks to live a more loving, compassionate and realistic life in these turbulent times.
It is not, however, going to be warmly received by the fundamentalist community, who are likely to regard it as another in a long line of heretical texts, and who miss the point of Jesus' ministry entirely.
Christ of the Celts June 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Phillip Newell is one of my favorite writers. He has the ability to bring together the ideas in a way that is easy to understand, clear even when somewhat complicated, and beautiful.
the memory of the song June 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Newell manages to build a bridge for me between the natural world of Celtic religion and the structured liturgy of my Anglican faith. This book has opened my eyes and heart to a fuller understanding of creation and our place within it. Some parts puzzle me, which is good because it sends me seeking for more answers, but mostly this book has answered many questions for me. I'm on my second read through and will probably read it many more times before I'm through. A truly heartwarming, uplifting and challenging read.
Excellent June 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Every Western Christian should read this book. It challenged a lot of the preconceived ideas and much of the teaching I have received in traditional western Christian churches. It is very well written and has opened up new doors in my personal journey with Christ. One of the best books I have read as a Christian.
 Old heterodoxy repackaged. June 2, 2008
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
The writer falls into three errors.
First, he denies the doctrine of 'creation out of nothing.' If we deny creation out of nothing, then it follows that God's creative fiat acted upon pre-existing matter, which begs the question of where this pre-existing matter came from. If it always was there, then we have something else eternal except God, and that cannot be. If it was willed into existance by other than God, then we have two Creators, or a Creator (whoever willed it into existance) and a Demiurge (the one who shaped it), and neither of those are compatable with Judeo-Christian theology, and is probably pretty dicy for Islam as well.
Second, he denies the Virgin Birth. However, if Jesus was concieved in the ordinary way, then He was just a man, or at best a man touched with God's spirit in a special way. That is Adoptionism; for the deficiencies of Adoptionism, I will refer you to Bp. C.Fitsimmons Allison's "The Cruelty of Heresy." It is also unscriptural. Luke and Matthew make it clear that Mary was not pregnant by any human intervention, and John says of the Incarnate Word that he was "born not of the will of a man" (alternative translation, "born not of the will of a husband".)
Third, he denies original sin. How anyone can look at the history of the 20th C., with the two World Wars, the Holocaust, the ravages of Stalin and Mao, the Killing Fields of Cambodia, and the like--or even the individual evils of the likes of Ed Gein, Charles Manson, Jeff Dahlmer, Ted Bundy, and their ilk--and not conclude that there is something very, very wrong with the way human beings are put together morally.
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