Book Review: Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation

A few years ago I undertook to read the Bible. Okay, actually, I had this naive idea that to understand Christianity I could just read the Bible and it would tell me what Christian beliefs were. Boy was I naive.

After first learning the basics of what the Bible is (Old Testament/New Testament – yes, the very basics), then gobbling up the gospels (really, the only parts in the whole thing that is the story of Jesus), I was more confused than ever. 

With a background in metaphysics, New Thought, and Rosicrucian philosophy, I was reading the words in the gospels and gleaning insights that aligned perfectly with my way of thinking. I saw representations of the unity of all creation, the reincarnation cycle, even the purpose of life.  Fitting my reading with the dogma which Christianity has accumulated throughout the years was just confusing for me.

Since then, I have read a variety of texts to try to understand the reasons behind different views and interpretations. Recently, I read Philip Newell’s Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation and was struck by both the message and his words.

The basics of this book, and much of Mr. Newell’s work, is that the Christianity of the Celts follows a different lineage and heritage than the Christianity which the Roman’s spread. Here you find a deep connection to the cycles of the earth along with the absence of some potentially troublesome dogma such as original sin. 

Newell’s work gets some criticism saying that it uses Gnostic principles to promote a Celtic Christianity which really didn’t exist. I don’t have enough background in the historical development of Christianity and its spread in the ancient world, but from my research through reading past life regression material on this subject (truthfully a source I tend to trust more than theological assertions), it seems probable that there was a branch of early Christianity which spread to the Celtic region and then remain relatively untouched from Roman influence.

Even if you don’t care about the theological aspects of Newell’s book, one thing I did find quite startling was the number of times something he wrote seemed akin to what I have heard spirit guides relate through readings. Parts of the book felt familiar in a way that is difficult to put into language.

This feeling magnified when I did a reading that then corresponded with a chapter I read the next day, both relating the heartbeat of the earth to the sound of Indigenous people’s drums. A striking comparison that was so closely aligned it was difficult to miss.

Now, I did not pick up this book because it was something I really wanted to read. Really, I was looking at Newell’s newer book (Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World), but the library had a waitlist so I thought I would check out an earlier book of his while waiting for my turn. I am glad this occurred and I am now even more interested in reading his newer work.

This book is one I would recommend to anyone with an interest in alternative Christian doctrine. If you have a feeling that the thread of Christianity, of Jesus’s message, rings true, but the dogma of the religion is off-putting and doesn’t line up with the energetic structure which it is founded upon, you may enjoy this book.