Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul

This book was a gift given to me. When I received it from the author’s hands in a gesture out of generosity, I was, immediately, drawn to the cover with its inspiring title and the photo in the background that takes us to the heart of a forest. In this book, John Philip Newell brings to life again the lives and teachings of the Celtic teachers, some of them recognised as Saints in the Celtic world as is the case of Saint Brigid of Kildare in the fifth century. We are introduced to the earliest Celtic Christian representatives, like for… show more.

There is growing literature in both religious and secular circles about a needed sense of reverence for the Earth to counter an utterly utilitarian view that all life is present as resources for human use only. I commend Newell’s Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul to illustrate how a great tradition, Celtic spirituality, through its poetry, song, and way-of-life practices, draws deeply on the sense of the sacred that the soul knows and most people experience in some measure.