tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post401404491840342759..comments2023-10-04T09:50:08.070-05:00Comments on Logismoi: 'Our First English Book-Collector'--St Benedict BiscopAaron Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17775589009145031773noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-57969179289878978332009-01-25T16:15:00.000-06:002009-01-25T16:15:00.000-06:00You assume correctly: I read it and, although I'm ...You assume correctly: I read it and, although I'm no expert, I very much agreed with Fr Nankivell's assessment of the issue. There's also a nice little book called 'Anglo-Saxon Christianity' by Paul Cavill, an Old English professor at Nottingham. Although it's put out by Zondervan and to my knowledge Cavill isn't Orthodox, it's very much in an Orthodox spirit, and his conclusions are similar to Fr Nankivell's.<BR/><BR/>As for the 'Celtic spirituality' craze, I know exactly what you mean about that. My solution has been to stick to primary sources to learn about it. My favourite book on the subject thus far is a bilingual anthology called 'Iona: The Earliest Poetry of a Celtic Monastery' by Thomas Owen and Gilbert Markus (pub. U of Edinburgh). The texts themselves are wonderful, but more interestingly, the introductory materials and notes are amazing, and very much against the grain of the typical Celtic spirituality stuff, which they seem to be deliberately combatting. I've been meaning to post something from and about this book for a while!Aaron Taylorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17775589009145031773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714437334790446678.post-78515524811859535362009-01-25T12:53:00.000-06:002009-01-25T12:53:00.000-06:00I assume that you have read the interview with Fr....I assume that you have read the interview with Fr. John Nankivell, <I>Bede's World: Early Christianity in the British Isles</I> in the Summer 2007 Road to Emmaus. In this interview, he argues against the popular line of thought that sees Celtic Church / Roman Church in constant and necessary dialectic. As I am sure you well know, this line of thought is popular amongst Orthodox in the West as well. Anyway, I get the sense from your posts on British saints that you are sympathetic to Fr. John's thesis, thus, for instance, seeing the Synod of Whitby as a good thing.<BR/><BR/>My family happens to have a devotion to St. Hilda, thus I am quite sympathetic to Fr. John's thesis. Plus, there is so much bad information and dangerous literature associated with "Celtic Spirituality" out there - it seems to attract persons who want to view the Celtic Church as antinomian, earthy in a pop mystic manner, anti-intellectual, and so forth (these same folks often view the Orthodox Church at large in these terms). I appreciate your reminders of the great intellectual patrimony of the Church in the British isles.Ochlophobist https://www.blogger.com/profile/13751003558600087713noreply@blogger.com