Introduction

Summary

This book is about the nexus of two subjects: the images of Christ, and Christianity as it was conceived and practised in the Insular Celtic regions in late antiquity and the early middle ages. Our work presents a model of early Celtic Christianity and its development from the early fifth to the end of the ninth century or beginning of the tenth century. The topics include institutional Christianity, theology and religious practice. We argue that the character of Christianity that emerges from our analysis determined the range of Christological images found in literature and art produced in the Celtic areas. We hope to demonstrate that the form of Christianity and of Christological images experienced both continuity and change over the period studied, reflecting continuity and change in the theological and spiritual outlook. The first four chapters are devoted to the problem of characterising ‘Celtic Christianity’ in the period examined; the last three deal specifically with the images of Christ. Of these, the first deals with images drawn from literary evidence; the last two, with images drawn from the visual arts. This introduction provides an outline of our thesis and defines terms used later in the book. We have reserved detailed argumentation and the presentation of evidence for the ensuing chapters.

Our geographical focus is the Celtic areas of the British Isles: Britain (modern Wales and Cornwall and areas now in northern England) and Ireland with its extensions into Iona. Because of the late nature of the evidence, Brittany receives only intermittent attention, and that chiefly where it provides evidence bearing upon Britain and Ireland. However, for historiographical reasons it is essential to include Anglo-Saxon England in this study. The English writers Aldhelm and Bede, who wrote in the late seventh and early eighth centuries, provide invaluable information for our assessment of British and Irish beliefs and practices in their day. Indeed, as all modern scholars of early Insular history are aware, it would be impossible to write anything very meaningful about the Celtic regions without recourse to these sources, particularly Bede. However, English writers were not simply detached observers of the Celtic scene; they were also deeply influenced by it. Irish missionaries and teachers converted Northumbria, in which Bede lived, and were also influential in Wessex and Kent, where Aldhelm circulated.