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Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity refers broadly to certain features of Christianity that were practiced across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages.〔Koch, p. 431.〕 Some historians have described a distinct Celtic Church, embodying Chalcedonian Christianity, that united the Celtic peoples and distinguished them from what would become the Roman Catholic Church after the Great Schism. Other historians classify it as merely a set of distinctive religious practices occurring in those areas.〔Koch, pp. 431–432.〕 Scholars now reject the former notion, but note that there were certain traditions and practices used in both the Irish and British churches but not in the wider Christian world.〔Corning, p. 18.〕 These include a distinctive system for determining the dating of Easter, a style of monastic tonsure, a unique system of penance, and the popularity of going into "exile for Christ".〔 Additionally, there were other practices that developed in certain parts of Britain or Ireland, but which are not known to have spread beyond a particular region. The term therefore denotes regional practices among the insular churches and their associates, rather than actual theological differences. The term "Celtic Church" is deprecated by many historians as it implies a unified and identifiable entity entirely separate from the mainstream of Western Christendom.〔Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, ''Early Medieval Ireland 400–1200'' (London, 1995); T. M. Charles-Edwards, ''Early Christians Ireland'' (Cambridge, 2000); W. Davies, "The Myth of the Celtic Church", in N. Edwards and A. Lane, ''The Early Church in Wales and the West'' (Oxbow Monograph 16, Oxford, 1992), pp. 12–21; Kathleen Hughes, "The Celtic Church: is this a valid concept?", in ''Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies'' 1 (1981), pp. 1–20; Kathleen Hughes, ''The Church in Early English Society'' (London, 1966); W. Davies and P. Wormald, ''The Celtic Church'' (Audio Learning Tapes, 1980).〕 Others prefer the term "Insular Christianity".〔Peter Brown, ''The Rise of Western Christendom'', 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003), pp. 16, 51, 129, 132.〕 As Patrick Wormald explained, "One of the common misconceptions is that there was a 'Roman Church' to which the 'Celtic' was nationally opposed."〔Patrick Wormald, "Bede and the 'Church of the English'", in ''The Times of Bede'', ed. Stephen Baxter (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), p. 207.〕 In German, the term "Iroschottisch" is used, with Lutz von Padberg placing the same caveat about a supposed dichotomy between Irish-Scottish and Roman Christianity. Celtic-speaking areas were part of Latin Christendom as a whole at a time in which there was significant regional variation of liturgy and structure with a general collective veneration of the Bishop of Rome that was no less intense in Celtic areas.〔Richard Sharpe, "Some problems concerning the organization of the Church in early medieval Ireland", ''Peritia'' 3 (1984), pp. 230–270; Patrick Wormald, "Bede and the 'Church of the English'", in ''The Times of Bede'', ed. Stephen Baxter (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), pp. 207–208, 220 n. 3〕 Nonetheless, it is possible to talk about the development and spread of distinctive traditions, especially in the sixth and seventh centuries. Some elements may have been introduced to Ireland by the Briton Saint Patrick, later others spread from Ireland to Britain with the Irish missions of Saint Columba. The histories of the Irish, Welsh, Scots, Breton, Cornish, and Manx Churches diverge significantly after the eighth century (resulting in a great difference between even rival Irish traditions).〔Patrick Wormald, "Bede and the 'Church of the English'", in ''The Times of Bede'', ed. Stephen Baxter (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), pp. 223–224 n. 1〕 Later interest in the subject has led to a series of "Celtic Christian revival" movements, which have shaped popular perceptions of the Celts and their religious practices. ==Definition== "Celtic Christianity" has been conceived of in different ways at different times. Writings on the topic frequently say more about the time in which they originate than the historical state of Christianity in the early medieval Celtic-speaking world, and many notions are now discredited in modern academic discourse.〔Corning, p. xii.〕〔Bradley, p. vii–ix.〕 One particularly prominent feature ascribed to Celtic Christianity is that it is supposedly inherently distinct from – and generally opposed to – the Catholic Church.〔Corning, p. 1.〕 Other common claims are that Celtic Christianity denied the authority of the Pope, was less authoritarian than the Catholic Church, more spiritual, friendlier to women, more connected with nature, and more comfortable dealing with the ancient Celtic religion.〔 One view, which gained substantial scholarly traction in the 19th century, was that there was a "Celtic Church", a significantly organised Christian body or denomination uniting the Celtic peoples and separating them from the "Roman" church of continental Europe.〔Koch, p. 432.〕 Toynbee, in his Study of History, went as far as to identify Celtic Christianity with an "Abortive Far Western Civilization" - the nucleus of a new society, which was prevented from taking root by the Roman Church, Vikings, and Normans. Others have been content to speak of "Celtic Christianity" as consisting of certain traditions and beliefs intrinsic to the Celts.〔Koch, p. 432–434.〕 However, modern scholars have identified problems with all of these claims, and find the term "Celtic Christianity" problematic in and of itself.〔 The idea of a "Celtic Church" is roundly rejected by modern scholars due to the lack of substantiating evidence.〔 Indeed, there were distinct Irish and British church traditions, each with their own practices, and there was significant local variation even within the individual Irish and British spheres.〔Corning, p. 4.〕 While there were some traditions known to have been common to both the Irish and British churches, these were relatively few. Even these commonalities did not exist due to the "Celticity" of the regions, but due to other historical and geographical factors.〔 Additionally, the Christians of Ireland and Britain were not "anti-Roman"; the authority of Rome and the papacy were possibly venerated as strongly in some Celtic areas as they were in other regions of Europe.〔Corning, p. 1; 4.〕 Caitlin Corning further notes that the "Irish and British were no more pro-women, pro-environment, or even more spiritual than the rest of the Church."〔 Corning notes that scholars have identified three major strands of thought that have influenced the popular conceptions of Celtic Christianity. The first arose in the English Reformation, when the Church of England declared itself separate from papal authority. Protestant writers of this time popularised the idea of an indigenous British Christianity that opposed the foreign "Roman" church and was purer (and proto-Protestant) in thought. The reformed British and Irish churches, they claimed, were not forming a new institution, but casting off the shackles of Rome and returning to their true roots as the indigenous national churches of Britain.〔Corning, p. 2.〕 Ideas of Celtic Christianity were further influenced by the Romantic movement of the 18th century, in particular Romantic notions of the noble savage and the intrinsic qualities of the "Celtic race". The Romantics idealised the Celts as a primitive, bucolic people who were far more poetic, spiritual, and freer of rationalism than their neighbours. The Celts were seen as having an inner spiritual nature that shone through even after their form of Christianity had been destroyed by the authoritarian and rational Rome.〔Corning, p. 2–3.〕 In the 20th and 21st centuries, these ideas were combined with appeals by certain modern churches and neo-pagan and New Age groups seeking to recover something of ancient spirituality that is felt to be missing from the modern world. For these groups Celtic Christianity becomes a cipher for whatever is lost in the modern religious experience. Corning notes that these notions say more about modern desires than about the reality of Christianity in the Early Middle Ages, however.〔Corning, p. 3.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Celtic Christianity」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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