The Revival of Celtic Christianity
The modern revival of interest in Celtic Christianity which reached its height during the last decade of the twentieth century was a largely popular and non-academic phenomenon. However, it did stimulate academic interest and activity within Scottish university departments of theology and religious studies. This chapter surveys the academic aspects of the Celtic Christian revival, focusing especially on the work of James Mackey and Noel O’Donoghue in Edinburgh, Thomas Clancy and Gilbert Markus in Glasgow, and Donald Meek in Aberdeen. It explores the tensions between enthusiasts for Celtic Christianity and those highly sceptical of the entire concept and charts the way the focus of studies in this area has moved from Britain to the United States and from the theological to the historical, linguistic, and cultural.