Critics Of Celtic Spirituality

I am engaged in three massive writing projects. One of these has been accumulating on my computer since the revised edition of my 'Exploring Celtic Spirituality' was published in 2004.  Since then I have noted every serious criticism of Celtic Spirituality, examined and reflected upon the sources.

How does one do this in a post-truth world where every statement that does not flatter one's ego is dismissed as fake news?  First,  by making evidence-based arguments. Second, by purifying one's own ego. Everyone has constructs. Every biblical writer has a construct. Jesus had constructs. So did the Pharisees. Those with a dualistic Augustinian construct that divides matter from spirit naturally dimiss more holistic views of creation. Constructs are coloured, if not dictated by what our false ego projects on to people  and movements.Much of our lives, much of the time, our false egos play havoc with reality.  So we have to strip away what is false in our egos in order to see accurately. 

The emphasis early Celtic-speaking Christians placed upon penitential disciplines, inspired by the desert fathers and mothers whose priority was to strip away the false ego (described as the eight deadly traits) until nothing but the love of God was left, may not be evidence of a morbid, masochistic, life-denying spirituality as some claim: it may indicate a passion to be real. 

This has implications for new monastics who draw inspiration from them, as well as from other schools of spirituality. It may suggest that we focus less on the super-structures of Christianity, and are restoring it as The Way. This is a way of reality. We seek to be real.  This Way is therefore universal.  There are intimations of it  in Chinese Dao and in First Nation Peoples universal Divine Law of Creation, but nowhere is it as fully lived as in Jesus who descibed himself as The Way. 

This is why the daily emails on The Way appeal to critics and devotees of Celtic Spirituality alike.  We come down from building castles in the air. We travel together for real at ground level.