1. Forging New Culture Celtic Christian Art and the Rebirth of Culture in an Age of Darkness The artist cannot wait, in fact nobody can, till the world is renewed, the crisis solved, and new cultural principles worked out. We have to participate in the life of our times. In fact the artist might even stand in the most difficult place, as the spirit of anti-Christianity, of dehumanization, of despair is strongest in the avant-garde tradition of the arts. But maybe there is still something left of the strong old traditions that can be used as a starting point. - H. R. Rookmaaker1 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. - James 1:17 Augustine’s thorough critique of the pagan culture of his day came at the beginning of a dark period in European history. Even as the great saint lay dying, the barbarians were at the door, and would sweep over the entire vast expanse of Rome’s European empire, with nothing cultural to contribute but plunder, stasis, and, ultimately, decline. A nomadic and militaristic people, the Germanic tribes that supplanted traditional Roman rule cared only for order and power. They had little interest in intellectual elegance or cultural achievement: the greatest Christian philosopher of the fifth century, Boethius, was brutally martyred by the barbarian emperor he sought to serve. The darkness that settled on the western part of Rome’s crumbling empire during the fourth and fifth centuries was nearly total. Only here and there did cultural lights flicker as reminders of the glory that once was. Yet even as the darkness was deepening on the European mainland, a fresh phoenix of culture was rising from the ashes of another ancient, dying way of life, among the wild Celtic peoples of Ireland and Scotland, who, heirs of a rich, albeit illiterate, cultural heritage, had come into possession of the light of truth through the impetus provided by the missionary Patrick and others from the mid-fifth century on. For the Celtic Christians of the sixth through the ninth centuries, their pagan heritage, for all its crudity and simplicity, became the platform for constructing a new culture that would play a significant role in bringing revival and renewal to many parts of the Western Church. Consisting of a vast literary and artistic achievement, sound community structure, and a highly disciplined spirituality, the legacy of Celtic Christianity comes down to us today, among other things, in the heritage of Celtic Christian art. The astonishing legacy of he Celtic Christians was an unlikely achievement. It arose from the ashes of antiquity amid the darkness of barbarianism to shine the brilliant light of Christian culture throughout a weary continent. In the work of these anonymous artists we see an example of how visionary believers can forge new culture out of the rubble, and bring beauty, goodness, and truth to life in a time of uncertainty and despair. We have all seen and loved various expressions of ancient Celtic Christian art. The “circle crosses” in many Anglican and Presbyterian churches; decorative interlocking keys and knots; flowing designs in jewelry and clothing; and delicate and often surreal flora and fauna: these are just a few of the cultural forms surviving from one of the most prolific and important periods in the heritage of Christian culture. While not the earliest expression of the use of art for Christian purposes, the arts which flourished among the Celtic peoples of Europe from the sixth to the ninth centuries are a good place for us to turn as we pursue our discussion of culture matters toward the discovery of principles for an authentic contemporary Christian cultural consensus. For not only must we necessarily engage culture, ready to judge it with righteous judgment, but we must create culture as well, and not just in the arts. The language we speak, the manners we use, our ways of relating in families, among friends, and on the job, as well as our tastes in cultural forms and diversions – all these and more we both engage and recreate, for our own generation and for those who will succeed us. We must be concerned, therefore, not just for exercising an effect cultural watch, but for the culture we create as well, and the ways we go about creating it. Our Celtic Christian forebears have left us an example for creating culture which contains many sound principles to guide us through the maze of culture matters. 1 The current renaissance of interest in Celtic Christianity is an encouraging sign, suggesting as it does a renewed curiosity concerning the Christian past and the lessons it might hold for us today.2 What Robert Wilken has written about Christian intellectuals is surely true of all Christians, that we are "inescapably bound to those persons and ideas and events that have created the Christian memory."3 The prevalence of Celtic themes in contemporary film, pop culture, and literature has helped to promote widespread awareness of this important period. The Celtic Revival The period of the Celtic revival - roughly the middle of the fifth to the end of the eighth centuries, a little over 300 years - is especially rich in literature, artifacts, stories, and lessons to enrich our understanding and appreciation of the Christian past and to guide us in the work of formulating a Christian consensus on culture matters. Thomas Cahill is not far from the mark in his claim that Irish missionary-monks saved Western civilization from barbaric inundation. Not only in their evangelistic zeal, but in their profound and earnest piety, love of books and learning, strong sense of community, and commitment to a distinctively Christian expression of their Celtic cultural heritage, generations of “wanderers for Christ,” together with the people who populated the communities they founded, helped to preserve the Christian heritage of the early Church and to lay again the foundations of civil society after the catastrophe of barbarism. Celtic Christian art is undoubtedly what most people think of as the outstanding achievement of this period. And, indeed, it is a significant achievement. Lavish and exquisitely illustrated Biblical manuscripts, immense stone crosses, elegant liturgical vessels, and delicate everyday artifacts reveal a common sense of vision and purpose and a common devotion to excellence and innovation, within a common artistic tradition, that is unsurpassed in the history of Christian artistic endeavor. Building on the foundations of their Celtic heritage, and borrowing freely from existing Christian and non-Christian cultures, Celtic artists manage to forge a completely new culture during the most unlikely of cultural seasons. We can learn from them to resist the temptation to despair over the state of contemporary culture, or to wait until things improve before we take up the task of renewing culture and working or a Christian consensus on culture matters. The Celtic Christian artists of the past can encourage us to take up this challenge with vigor and vision. After first defining what we understand by the term, “Celtic Christian art,” we will then examine the lasting achievement of those ancient Celtic artists, before offering some observations concerning how they might help us in taking up the task of achieving Christian consensus over culture matters. We’ll also chat with Phil Keaggy, a contemporary Christian artist whose oeuvre in many ways embodies the pioneering spirit of our Celtic forebears. Celtic Christian Art Celtic Christian art describes a category of ancient abstract religious art, concentrated chiefly in early medieval Ireland and Britain, which incorporates elements of pure form, floral and faunal representationalism, and Biblical and hagiographical iconography, and is expressed within an impressive range of media, principally, everyday domestic and personal objects, various kinds of liturgical vessels, magnificent illustrated manuscripts, and imposing carved crosses.4 Ancient abstract art Celtic Christian art is a form of abstract art. It makes wide use of geometric forms and patterns; spirals singular and in combination, especially triskeles; interlocking patterns of steps and keys; stylized twisted crosses; and varieties of lacework. Its plant and animal forms are highly exaggerated and frequently employed in pairs or as parts of larger patterns in which their forms and bodies are contorted to impossible shapes that are nonetheless logical and beautiful given the larger context in which they appear. Even the human figures in Celtic Christian art - the saints and Biblical characters who feature so prominently, especially on carved crosses - are deliberately presented in the abstract, but not merely because these artists were incapable of doing better.5 Cut off from developments in the rest of Christian art,6 Christian artists in Ireland and Britain drew from their existing cultural heritage, their contacts with neighboring cultures, and 2 their sense of Christian cultural responsibility to create new and enduring forms that continue to enthrall, “one of the great artistic traditions of the world and one which, furthermore, retained its integrity for more than fifteen hundred years.”7 J. Romilly Allen has nicely summarized the leading characteristics of Celtic Christian art as follows:8 (1) The prominence given to the margin or frame within which the whole design is enclosed. (2) The arrangement of the design within the margin in panels, each containing a complete piece of ornament. (3) The use of setting-out lines for the ornament, placed diagonally with regard to the margin. (4) The use of interlaced-work, step-patterns, key-patterns, spirals, and zoomorphs in combination. (5) The geometrical perfection of all the ornament. (6) The superiority of the decorative designs to the figure-drawing.