(this is my notes from my lesson in my church history course today about the Irish missionaries of the early middle ages)This lesson has some pretty incredible stuff happen. I really think it attests to God’s gracious hand. Christianity could have very easily faded out into oblivion if it hadn’t have been for the Irish. That is pretty incredible.
Thus, I would like to discuss a little what made them effective. I think there are two focal points that seem to reoccur in history that makes a church remain healthy and reach others. The first is community, and the second is an emphasis on reaching out to the world.
First, the community issue is often forgotten in our modern church in America. We have very much leaned toward the pietistic ideal of individual faith. We believe that faith is something personal and between the Maker and the man alone. And yes, ultimately, there is no person who can have that relationship for you, but there are people who can support you in your relationship with God. This is community. And very clearly, Christ sent his disciples out two by two. And the church of Acts recognized the need to have a close community where they shared the food and the houses and their possessions and really their lives with each other. This is demonstrating that we are his disciples, by loving one another. This cannot really happen without a community of Christians. So first, disciples are meant to have communal living (in various forms).
Second, there has always been an emphasis of taking it to the enemy. Right before Jesus and his disciples return to Jerusalem the final time, Jesus takes them into gentile country many miles to the north. Why did he do this? To show them one final lesson. It is there that Jesus tells the disciples that He will build his church (“community”) on this rock and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. But in context of this is the geography. There is a huge rock that is in Caesarea Philippi. This rock has a cave out of which flows the beginnings of the Jordan River. This opening in the rock was called the “gates of hades” (ie greek word used meaning “hell”). So what was Jesus saying? I think he was saying that the disciples were to go out to this lost, pagan world and go on the attack. They were to assail the gates of hell, and the promise that the gates will not prevail. You see, we think of this passage often in the negative sense. We think, ah yes, the church will not fail. But that isn’t what Jesus says. He says the gates of hell. Gates are meant to keep invaders out. These gates that Jesus refers to are the gates of hell. So they are meant to protect hell from attack. Certainly these are our gates. These are the gates we are supposed to break down, by bringing the Good News to the world.
So now, I discussed these two factors, community and sharing the Good News, let’s apply them to the Irish. They lived in communities of monks, and they emphasized going to other people and sharing the Good News. I think this is why they were successful. So now, why don’t we do this? In suburban America there is hardly any community, even among Christians. Everyone does their own thing, and then meets together once or twice a week. This is community. This is a pseudo-community. And what about being on the offensive? I don’t know hardly any Christians in America that willingly go out to share the Good News whether through word or deed. So no wonder American Christianity is becoming stagnant.
What do yall think?
Filed under: Christianity, Religion | Tagged: church history, discipleship, monasticism, seminary
Hmmm, living as I do in N. Ireland, I’d tend to say that the Irish saved Catholicism and NOT true Christianity – there is a subtle but important difference. Catholicism still rules Southern Ireland heavily with even many of the legal decisions being based on their belief system. True Christianity on the other hand has risen enormously since the Troubles, because of the religious propaganda war waged by the IRA. We now have more churches per sq mile than any other part of the UK as a result. Protestants outnumber Catholics in N. Ireland and thus maintain an important religious distinction here unlike in the South. I would prefer to state that the Irish didn’t save anything – God did! But I take your point on how the Irish of their day may have emigrated to America and set up at least a Catholic belief system there, but obviously many Protestants must have also, and I think Catholicism in the US must now equally be rather on the decline perhaps. Community is indeed more important to them here in Ulster than to Protestants – that’s a very visible difference even now
. Interesting post tho. Blessings, TKR 
tkr
i think that you are right about almost everything you said. but i think you may have misunderstood why i used that title. you see, the lesson i did in my course talked about the irish saving christianity. i dont agree with that statement either. but i think the early medieval period for the irish really was a healthy christian growth. even if soon after the irish church began to become much more catholic. but even at that time, the catholic church wasnt that corrupt.
but bottomline is that i agree God saved christianity, but he may have used the irish missionaries to the rest of europe as a means in the early middle ages.
peter
Sorry – didn’t mean to imply you were saying what I *did* imply you were saying – Irish that isn’t it LOL. Afraid I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to jump in and ensure nobody *was* in any doubt about the reality of religion in this island. Catholics here certainly consider they’ve saved us all and rarely give any credence at all to the massive work undertaken by Protestants partly because of all the political innuendo now which is sad. But I take your point – did sort of get rather sidetracked – common fault of mine these days
Blessings, a rather more humble TKR.
hear ya. thanks.
pb