Jason Clark has a thought provoking post on Celtic Monasticism and the spiritual and theological connection, how they lived and cared for the environment around them. We as a people of faith have distanced ourselves from God the Creator and His words to us in the opening of Genesis;
26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
reflecting our nature
So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
the birds in the air, the cattle,
And, yes, Earth itself,
and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
God created human beings;
he created them godlike,
Reflecting God's nature.
He created them male and female.
God blessed them:
"Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
The further we have navigated this long corridor of History, as people of faith those words are somewhere off in the distance, no longer audible...our responsiblity...is an environment in ruins.
Our legacy, a faith where redeeming souls is it's priority....and where a faith in redeeming God's creation just doesn't seem worthy. I have written on Celtic monasticism often, a faith life that concerned itself with earth just as much as heaven. Jason looks a Celtic Monasticism and asks questions...much needed questions that we as faith communities need to answer...
God is Green was recently aired on Channel 4. Presenter Mark Dowd put forward the premise that maybe the answer to our problems with the environment lay in the hands of the 4.5 billion followers of the main world faiths, that is Christianity, Islam and Sikhism.
I felt rather inspired by the Bishop of London and it inspired me to think quite deeply about God and the environment.
In this post I'd like to ask you your views on whether you think there a convergence of both the physical and spiritual ecological Christianity, particualry embodied in the growing popularity of the celtic christian tradition?
There has been a resurgence of all things Celtic since the early 1980's, none more so than that of Celtic Christianity.
This, I believe is an awakening call to the Christian in the street, to an environmental ethic and through this a recognition of the problems that our own planet faces.
The Celtic Church had a deep connection to the world around it. As farmers and labourers they would've understood the seasons, how to work the land which they tended and cared for. They could see the goodness of the creator in his creation; some early writings show a deep and vibrant love of the environment, an understanding of God at work in their surroundings and in their everyday life.
So taking those principles from Celtic Christianity how can we apply then to the twenty first century?
Read the rest of Jason's post ... Here.
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