Maybe it was the Celtic Cross that first drew me in, maybe it was my strong Irish ancestry that found an affinity with them, maybe it was the everyday wash and wear kind of faith I heard in the myriad of Celtic Irish blessings. What ever attracted me first to Celtic Christianity, it has become for me a major formative influence as I journey with God.
History teaches us about the Celts love for song, nature and home. They loved the new faith that Patrick brought to them that started the conversion of pagan Ireland to the faith in the Triune God. We know that they were mystics, scholars, evangelists and missionaries. What I love best is what the blessings teach me – they lived as whole people in the place where they were.
One of the things I have learned from the Celts is that in our world God gives us Thin Places – places where the distance between heaven and earth shortens. In those places it seems easier to talk to God and to sense his presence. Holy places that are continually saturated with prayer seem thin, a death bed, or a gathering of two or more believers can become thin because Jesus promises to be there with them.
Thin Places: An Evangelical Journey into Celtic Christianity is the intriguing title of Tracy Balzer’s book about Celtic Christianity. The title sold me on the book before I had it in my hands. Sometimes books disappoint readers because they don’t measure up to the title, or to what you hoped they would teach. Thin Places delivered everything and more of what it promised.
Tracy Balzer is the Director of Christian Formation at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Balzer’s intent was to write a book that would be non-threatening and enlightening for evangelicals who might be wary of all things Celtic. Admitting that there is a tendency for error and New Age practices to get mixed up with the Celts, she then attempts to clear away fantasy and legend from the real Christian faith of the Celts.
To that end she bravely faces the problem areas that might scare off evangelicals, and clearly and warmly talks us through those issues. Without making the Celts superheroes or actors in a mythical scifi movie, she introduces us to the real people who followed God so passionately in ancient Ireland.
She has been a pilgrim to ancient Celtic churches and monasteries such as Iona many times. I especially love the way she interweaves her own experiences and spiritual journey into the history lessons about ancient Ireland that she shares with us. Her journal entries from her visit to Iona opens each chapter and sets the stage for the topic of the chapter. She includes scriptures and mediation questions for the reader to engage with as well.
Each chapter explains a spiritual discipline that was an intimate part of the Celtic Christian’s life. Soul Friends, Prayer, Pilgrimage, Silence and Solitude, Saints and Symbols are some examples of chapter titles and topics. The topics are well chosen to give the reader a well rounded picture of Celtic Christianity and how to personally understand and benefit from these ancient practices for ourselves.
I loved this book. It is the best book on Celtic Christianity I have read because of Balzer’s even handed approach to historical data, and because of how she presents the spiritual practices of the Celts. She has made them and their way of living out their faith very real. Reading this book can help someone adapt these spiritual disciplines for their own benefit.
I would love to use this book in a small group or a Bible study. Well done, Tracy Balzer.
Reviewed by Joan Tyvoll
