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337 Some striking similarities have been traced between Irish and Eastern Christianity in the field of theology and spiritual life, with monasticism being the meeting point of these physically distant traditions. Here we will discuss theological theses expressed in early Irish and Greek religious literature of the first Byzantine period in the context of comparative spirituality, with a view to showing the unity of God’s revelation in both nature and history , according to pre-Norman Irish and Greek patristic thought and religious experience, and that testify to a common theological background and a shared insight rooted in the biblical tradition. The severance of the natural from the historical and of the social from the existential field of reality is one of the main features of modern philosophy and life. This disjunction has its roots in medieval times, when scholastic theology posited natural and supernatural reality as two concurrent and autonomous layers, two kinds of revelation, the physical and the historical, where the latter is understood as a supplement to the former. There is no trace of such a distinction in the early Irish and Greek patristic traditions: nature and history, corporeal and spiritual—everything that is not God— constitute an inseparable created reality that is entirely dependent on Him. For the early Irish Christians, the understanding of the personal and directly functioning omnipresence of God would make any distinction between natural and supernatural reality meaningless. The Celts saw the sovereignty, presence, and glory of God in everything that He created. The Father is the God of the elements, of earth, fire, water, the high winds, the bottomless ocean, the bright stars, not just their distant Maker. As the Cappadocian expresses it, the whole universe is “the magnificent and famed Natural and Supernatural Revelation in Early Irish and Greek Monastic Thought: A Comparative Approach Chrysostomos Koutloumousianos 338 C H RY S O S TO M O S K O U T LO U M O U S I A N O S stoicheion, in which God is manifested through silent proclamation.” Every element, every image or expression of the natural world is conceived as a transparent veil behind which God’s power is at work. At the same time, the divine presence is revealed not only in nature but also “in the languages of men throughout the whole world,” that is, in culture and history. An important part of early Irish literature lies in the field of cosmology. Creation functions as a symbol, a sign, of divine things. It is recorded that Columba interpreted the books of Law, studied the mysteries of revelation in the Scriptures, and observed and meditated on the courses of the heavenly bodies and the sea. The great Irish saint observed the stars, but he “discerned the elements according to types.” Study arises not from a longing for intellectual occupation but is a product of religious sensitivity. Thus the preface of the Altus Prosator announces that the reason for its composition was Columba’s desire to praise God. In this same epic one also finds a typological use of cosmology, where everything is seen in the light of the incarnation . The courses and reappearances of Orion and Hesperus in the firmament are understood as types of the second coming of Christ. The theological spirit is inspired by scientific knowledge of the physical and spiritual cosmos, and the veneration of God is the ultimate desideratum of scientific toil. The poet’s wish is to help his readers understand the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord through observance of the laws of creation, which function as signs. Furthermore, through conscious participation in the symbolic liturgy, animated creation, physical and noetic, becomes the “angel” of apocryphal knowledge. Even the animal kingdom is familiar with the language of the heavenly ranks, the language all will speak at the Judgment. A typical example is the role of birds in Celtic literature. More than being just a part of the beautiful mosaic of creation, they have a particular relationship with man as well as with the spiritual world. They empathize with men, like the bird who lamented the death of the hermit; they are angels—vehicles of divine messages, they speak all the angelic languages. Their main characteristic is their gift of song, and they participate in the hymns of the angels. We realize that all this poetic inspiration before the miracle and the mysteries of nature, expressed in exaggerated literary schemes or even archaic mythical language, serves...

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