Celtic Christian Studies and
E-Studies - Startpage

A Celtic Christian Studies Library is available to students and pilgrims on sabbatical at Holy Island. It is normally open 10.00 am to 6.00 pm Monday to Saturday at Lindisfarne Retreat, next to the Post Office.

Download a PowerPoint presentation showing the Celtic Timeline

 

Details of the E-Studies Course and the Nature of Study can be found below. If you are interested but have not been involved in academic study, or it is a long time since you did any, you can download some guidelines here.

Celtic Christian E-Studies

Aim

To offer spiritual seekers a flexible study course which

Initial Units

Units in Preparation

Format

Each unit has twelve lessons. Where appropriate a lesson has a:

Procedure

  1. The website provides samples, a course outline and an enrolment form which anyone may download.
  2. This invites a fee to CA&H of £190 per unit or a donation of less or more according to the student’s means and conviction. International students will if required be supplied with our bank details so as to credit the account. After deducting 30% for central overheads the office passes this on to the unit tutor.
  3. A person who wishes to complete a course posts the enrolment form with subscription to CA&H at the Lindisfarne Retreat and enrols for one unit.
  4. Within a few days they email to the office a personal profile which will help the tutor understand them and their context, any previous educational experience, and why they wish to do this course. The office may arrange an assessment interview.
  5. The office informs the applicant of their unit tutor and of the web password for the course. The student can then download the course material in PDF.
  6. The student asks a local person with educational experience to be their mentor . The mentor will talk through with them how to approach study tasks and how to improve draft replies and essays.
  7. The student notes down the books/chapters he/she has read.
  8. The student notes specific questions he/she wishes to ask the tutor.
  9. The student emails the tutor a note of material he/she has read, a question or two (if any), the exercise (if any). The completed essay/s, which incorporate the mentor's advice, is/are emailed as an attachment.
  10. The tutor appraises the essay and/or exercise, responds to the student's questions may suggest further work, and indicate when the student is ready to proceed to the next lesson.
  11. A student may clarify their own or question the tutor's points.

Appraisal

Students need to show that they understand issues, have acquired knowledge other than from the course notes, can distinguish between opinion and fact, and can relate material to life today.

After the tutor has received completed work for each lesson, any reworking she/he has requested, and the student’s responses and self evaluation, the tutor will inform the student and CCeS office that the student has

  1. completed the unit and
  2. in the tutor’s opinion has shown sufficient grasp of the subject to make enrolment for a further unit worthwhile.

In the event of dispute, the completed work may be sent to the Principal Tutor or, if he is the course tutor, to a participating Advisor.

Follow-up networking

If a student or tutor wishes to set up an email network for students who have a completed a unit to confab on course subjects each student will be asked whether or not they wish to participate.

Improvements

We welcome information about resources and subjects that will enable us to update and improve the course.

Advisors

Ian Bradley, Senior Lecturer in Practical Theology in the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews, UK;

Gavin Wakefield, Director of Mission and Pastoral Studies, Cranmer Hall, University of Durham UK.

Certificate

A student may, upon request, receive a Certificate in the CA&H CCeS if and when he/she completes six units, but please ponder the Rationale below.

Rationale

'We need places where people can explore spirituality and issues of contemporary Christian concern in an atmosphere of prayer and devotion rather than just academic study. There are huge numbers of diploma and degree courses offered and validated by all manner of academic institutions. Yet not everyone is afflicted with the modern disease of degree-itis and qualification-bagging - many simply want to explore and deepen their faith in a prayerful atmosphere. .. (A seeker) was lucky that he had not wandered into one of the many institutions now providing MA courses in spirituality - there he would have found more words and an emphasis on gaining credits and acquiring qualifications. We need more places where people can engage in study and meditation for its own sake'

Rev Dr Ian Bradley - condensed from his book entitled 'Colonies of Heaven' in UK and 'Celtic Christian Communities' in N. America.

Copyright

The course material is copyright Community of Aidan and Hilda or of the stated originating tutor and may not be reproduced without permission.

Administrator

Ray Simpson

e-mail admin@ca-and-h.demon.co.uk

Tel: 01289-389249

Tutors

These are academically trained people that have an interest in subjects covered by the e-studies courses and a commitment to head through the heart learning. They include:

 

Further Education

Durham University and The University of Wales offer certificates and degrees in various related subjects.

The Nature Of Study

A Historical Approach

This seeks to find objective information. This is difficult to obtain for early centuries. Very few writers write history in the Celtic period. So a historical approach builds up a picture of what the historian thinks is probable in the light of facts already known from sources such as these:

Hagiography refers to a Life of a saint. The aim of most hagiographers is not that of a modern biographer who seeks to unearth facts about their subject, warts and all - perhaps choosing facts that will titivate the reader. The aim of the hagiographer is to show God at work in a human life. Hagiographers tended to use a formula in writing a ‘Live’. They would expect a dream or prophecy at their subjecct’s birth, miracles such as the Gospels record Jesus or the apostles performing, a sign at theirr subject’s death, and miracles at their grave following death.

Other aims might be to promote their section of the church by making claims for their saint. Hagiographers who wrote centuries after the death of their subject sometimes rely on folklore, legend and imagination. With such writings, e.g. Bishop Rhygifarch’s Life of David, scholars ask the question:

Is there a reason why this material is included other than that it actually happened?

Certain incidents or sayings may be thought to have the ring of truth, especially those that do not bring particular credit to the writer’s cause.

A historian decides what is probable in, say a Life of a saint, by assessing the aim of that writer and how stories fit in to the whole picture.

Autobiographical writings:

Historical writings

Bede’s History of the English Church and Nation: material on the history and saints of his native Northumbria, the largest English kingdom, is substantially more reliable than his material on places and periods other than his own, and than most hagiographers. He demonstrates the instincts of a historian; he reveals his sources and how reliable he thinks they are.

Hagiographies with eyewitness material

A hagiographer is mainly concerned to show how God worked in the life of the saint, what kind of person the saint was and of how they were part of the linked tradition of Christ, the apostles, desert Christians and later saints.

Some accounts were written within a generation or two of their subject and include material from eyewitnesses e.g.:

Centres of Celtic learning

 

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