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Mon 11 Aug, 2003 03:21 pm
Just finished reading "The Holy Kingdom" by Adrian Gilbert, et.al... One of the author's theses is that Christianity was imported into Britain much earlier that the accepted period (the end of the Second century). I am curious,and consider myself rather open minded, but works like this tend to make me doubt the quality of research that is presented.
The author make use of Welsh myth and legend, which has seen rehabilitation in the eyes of academe recently. He also seems to read with a bit too much willingness to believe legend over scholarship. He is further impugned by his association with the "Sirius Mystery" types, and by his eager dive into the "Grail Family" nonsense.
Now, having made those disclaimers, what do others on this board think of the thesis mentioned above, that Christianity entered Britain in the mid First Century?
I'm not sure anyone can say with any certainty when England became Christian. There are any number of unanswered questions, evidence of human activity, homes, military and religious constructions. People coming to the place from Europe, influences were many and varied. Attempt to prove one fact & disprove another.
When you consider that Stonehenge is still shrouded in historical mystery, it seems to me that God alone knows when things turned in his favour
l I'm not familiar with that book but the standard work on late Roman Britain is "The Age of Arthur: History of the British Isles from 350 to 650" by John Morris Scribner's 1973. Christianity was not only well established in Britain by the end of the Roman Empire it was a major contributor to the theological debates of the era. Pelagianism, the dominant form of Christian theology before Augustinian predetermination originated in Roman Britain..
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