Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Celtic Christian Spirituality reading list

Celtic Christian Spirituality reading list.

(The list below incorporates suggestions from Herbert O'Driscoll, Marcus Losack, Stephen Ott, and Katherine Doyle, S.M.
It is neither a required reading list nor is it exhaustive; it is intended to offer some possible choices for background reading.)


Spirituality – pilgrimage & exploration

Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue (HarperCollins, October 1997)

Celtic Threads: Exploring the Wisdom of Our Heritage by Padraigín Clancy (Dublin: Veritas, 1999)

The Celtic Way of Prayer: The Recovery of the Religious Imagination by Esther de Waal (Doubleday, 1997)

Every Earthly Blessing: Rediscovering the Celtic Tradition by Esther De Waal (Morehouse, 1999)

Glendalough: A Celtic Pilgrimage by Michael Rodgers and Marcus Losack (Morehouse, 1997)

In Search of Sacred Places: Looking for Wisdom on Celtic Holy Islands by Daniel Taylor (Bog Walk Press, 2005)

Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality by J. Philip Newell (Paulist Press, 1997)

Living Between Worlds: Place and Journey in Celtic Spirituality by Philip Sheldrake (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1995)

The Music of What Happens: Celtic Spirituality - A View from the Inside by John J. Ó Ríordáin C.Ss.R. (Dublin: Columba, 1996; US: Saint Mary's Press, 1996)

Soulfaring: Celtic Pilgrimage Then and Now by Cintra Pemberton, O.S.H. (Morehouse, 1999)

The Wisdom of the Celtic Saints by Edward C. Sellner (Bog Walk Press, 2006)

With an Eagle's Eye: A Seven-Day Sojourn in Celtic Spirituality by John Miriam Jones, S.C. (Ave Maria Press, 1998)


Spirituality – anthology & compilation

Celtic Christian Spirituality: An Anthology of Medieval and Modern Sources edited by Oliver Davies and Fiona Bowie (SPCK & Continuum, 1995)

Celtic Spirituality edited and translated and introduced by Oliver Davies; with the collaboration of Thomas O'Loughlin (Paulist Press, 1995)

The Celtic Vision: Prayers, Blessings, Songs, and Invocations from the Gaelic Tradition edited by Esther De Waal (Liguori/Triumph, 2001)
Selections from Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica (Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, 1900).


History, myth & legend

Celtic Inheritance by Peter Berresford Ellis (London: Constable, 1985; New York: Dorset, 1992)

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe by Thomas Cahill (Doubleday, 1995)


Memoir & biography

A Doorway in Time: Memoir of a Celtic Spiritual Journey by Herbert O'Driscoll (Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1985)

George MacLeod: Founder of the Iona Community by Ronald Ferguson (London: Collins, 1990; Glasgow: Wild Goose, April 2001)

Man of Aran by Pat Mullen (E. P. Dutton, 1935; M.I.T. Press, 1970)


Worship resources

A Celtic Primer: The Complete Celtic Worship Resource and Collection compiled by Brendan O’Malley (Morehouse, 2002)

Iona Abbey Worship Book by The Iona Community (Glasgow: Wild Goose, 2001)

Motion Pictures

Man of Aran written, directed and filmed by Robert J. Flaherty (Gainsborough Pictures, 1934)

Waking Ned Devine written and directed by Kirk Jones (Tomboy Films, 1998)


****


Early Irish history:

David Willis McCullough, ed., Wars of the Irish Kings: A Thousand Years of Struggle from the Age of Myth through the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I (Crown, 2000; Three Rivers Press, 2002)

Seumas MacManus et al., The Story of the Irish Race, Revised Edition (Devin-Adair, 1921)


An additional book on Celtic Christian Spirituality, by a collaborator on the Classics of Western Spirituality anthology of Celtic Spirituality (Paulist, 1999) is:

Thomas O'Loughlin, Journeys on the Edges: The Celtic Tradition (Orbis, 2000) in the Traditions of Christian Spirituality Series edited by Philip Sheldrake and co-published by Darton, Longman and Todd.


For fun, a children's book on Columba of Iona:

Jean Fritz, The Man Who Loved Books (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981)


Picture books abound, and they include:

Dorothea Lange's Ireland (Roberts Rinehart, 1998) including photographs taken in 1954 and kept in the Oakland Museum of California.

and more typically

The Islands of Ireland, text and photographs by Kenneth McNally (W. W. Norton, 1978)