An Irish Passion For Justice PDF Download

A Passion for Justice explores the early Irish or Celtic story of people and personalities. Their stories are part history and part myth, yet in the Celtic perspective both are powerful means of recognizing truthful ethics. It is important to recognize the context for early Irish social ethics, so this text explores the lives of some Celtic saints and their socio-ethical praxis. Author Johnston McMaster identifies key Celtic socio-ethical themes and connects these with the contemporary challenge to build an ethical community, inclusive of human and environmental relationships. The chapters on social ethics, in characteristic Celtic style, have a triune structure. Each chapter begins with an overview of a contemporary ethical issue, followed by an exploration of biblical perspectives. The chapters then develop insights from the early Irish and Celtic tradition using early poetry and writings. The focus on the Irish Celtic experience is not intended to exclude other Celtic regions, but to show within an Irish context, and in the contemporary context of an Irish peace process, that there is a rich Irish Celtic ethical tradition with contemporary resonance. The final chapter explores the spirituality of Celtic ethics - the spiritual resources that inspired, motivated, and shaped ethical praxis. The early Celtic Christian heritage echoes across the centuries and fires imagination and commitment at a key moment in Irish history. McMaster suggests that, as explorers of history, we can become history makers. Out of a shared past, a just peace and a shared future can be built. In connecting to the social ethics of the Irish Celtic tradition, we are, in the words of the medieval mystic Eckhart, 'Back in the house you never left.'