The Hinges of History
Embracing a cold, grey, snow-flurried February Saturday morning as an opportunity to do some reading has given me the time and space to chase one rabbit trail to another...
As of late, my personal reading and exploration has centered around Celtic spirituality. Why? I found a little book of Celtic prayers in the Cathedral at Durham last October that I have really grown to appreciate as "centering rhythms" in my prayer life (there's one for every day of the week). But I also recently read a pastor/teacher's thesis that in the institutional "Roman" structure of church that was effective for shaping culture for nearly two thousand years is now giving way. He argues that in a postmodern world, the "Celtic Way" with its emphasis on community, story and prayer is the most engaging way to reach people with the gospel. Since the Romans never bothered to conquer the barbaric Celts, Christianity developed in Ireland without the hierarchical oversight of popes and bishops. Celtic faith not only developed on the Isles in a much more fluid and unstable setting, but it actually took root and thrived - another stunning example of the amazing ability of the gospel to adapt to any cultural setting without compromising its message.
Well that quest led, in turn, to the discovery of a book called "How the Irish Saved Civilization," in historian Thomas Cahill's "The Hinge of History" series. This book recaptures history that feels alive (not the lifeless version taught to text-messaging high schools students) and helps us remember why the world is the way it is. Quite frankly, it has been rekindling my passion for how much we have to learn from history if we would lose our arrogant "nobody's ever had to deal with my issues" posture and cultural narcissim long enough to look at the bigger picture.
In the introduction to the series, Cahill points out: "We normally think of history as one catastrophe after another, war followed by war, outrage by outrage - almost as if history were nothing more than all of the narratives of human pain, assembled in sequence. And surely this, often enough, an adequate description. But history is also the narratives of grace, the recountings of those blessed and inexplicable moments when someone did something for someone else, saved a life, bestowed a gift, gave something that was required by circumstance...these great gift-givers, arriving in a moment of crisis, provided for transition, for transformation, and even for transfiguration, leaving us a world more varied and complex, more awesome and delightful, more beautiful and strong than the one they had found."
And in my mind, the words of this historian collided with those of a pontificating rock star invited to share at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday: "I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did - or did not do - to put the fire out in Africa."
The stunning conclusion of Cahill's book is that, as Rome fell and Western Europe was overrun with barbarians, small bands of passionate Irish Christians worked unassumingly to rescue and preserve the great classical works of antiquity believing that "all truth was God's truth." Thus this forgotten bunch of unsophisticated and barbaric nobodies saved Western Civilization as we know it and setting the stage for the Enlightenment, in which the re-discovery of truth and beauty and philosophy would finally pull the world out the "Dark Ages."
Could it be that we are on the cusp of another "hinge of history" with the dawning of the Information Revolution? Could it be that our greatest hope for the future, and the future of the chuch, lies with a largely forgotten people of the past? Why is it that it is always small groups of passionate people on the fringes and margins of society can often have the greatest impact? Is Bono right, and can a small minority of passionate believers in our generation act on conviction and see God break through to a world in flames with fear, terror, hatred, and pandemics, and by grace leave a planet more beautiful and strong than the one that we discovered ourselves in as we emerged into adulthood?
"History, like God, is watching..."
As of late, my personal reading and exploration has centered around Celtic spirituality. Why? I found a little book of Celtic prayers in the Cathedral at Durham last October that I have really grown to appreciate as "centering rhythms" in my prayer life (there's one for every day of the week). But I also recently read a pastor/teacher's thesis that in the institutional "Roman" structure of church that was effective for shaping culture for nearly two thousand years is now giving way. He argues that in a postmodern world, the "Celtic Way" with its emphasis on community, story and prayer is the most engaging way to reach people with the gospel. Since the Romans never bothered to conquer the barbaric Celts, Christianity developed in Ireland without the hierarchical oversight of popes and bishops. Celtic faith not only developed on the Isles in a much more fluid and unstable setting, but it actually took root and thrived - another stunning example of the amazing ability of the gospel to adapt to any cultural setting without compromising its message.
Well that quest led, in turn, to the discovery of a book called "How the Irish Saved Civilization," in historian Thomas Cahill's "The Hinge of History" series. This book recaptures history that feels alive (not the lifeless version taught to text-messaging high schools students) and helps us remember why the world is the way it is. Quite frankly, it has been rekindling my passion for how much we have to learn from history if we would lose our arrogant "nobody's ever had to deal with my issues" posture and cultural narcissim long enough to look at the bigger picture.
In the introduction to the series, Cahill points out: "We normally think of history as one catastrophe after another, war followed by war, outrage by outrage - almost as if history were nothing more than all of the narratives of human pain, assembled in sequence. And surely this, often enough, an adequate description. But history is also the narratives of grace, the recountings of those blessed and inexplicable moments when someone did something for someone else, saved a life, bestowed a gift, gave something that was required by circumstance...these great gift-givers, arriving in a moment of crisis, provided for transition, for transformation, and even for transfiguration, leaving us a world more varied and complex, more awesome and delightful, more beautiful and strong than the one they had found."
And in my mind, the words of this historian collided with those of a pontificating rock star invited to share at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday: "I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did - or did not do - to put the fire out in Africa."
The stunning conclusion of Cahill's book is that, as Rome fell and Western Europe was overrun with barbarians, small bands of passionate Irish Christians worked unassumingly to rescue and preserve the great classical works of antiquity believing that "all truth was God's truth." Thus this forgotten bunch of unsophisticated and barbaric nobodies saved Western Civilization as we know it and setting the stage for the Enlightenment, in which the re-discovery of truth and beauty and philosophy would finally pull the world out the "Dark Ages."
Could it be that we are on the cusp of another "hinge of history" with the dawning of the Information Revolution? Could it be that our greatest hope for the future, and the future of the chuch, lies with a largely forgotten people of the past? Why is it that it is always small groups of passionate people on the fringes and margins of society can often have the greatest impact? Is Bono right, and can a small minority of passionate believers in our generation act on conviction and see God break through to a world in flames with fear, terror, hatred, and pandemics, and by grace leave a planet more beautiful and strong than the one that we discovered ourselves in as we emerged into adulthood?
"History, like God, is watching..."
