Brueggeman Fellowship: Leaving for Scotland!

2 min readJul 5, 2023

For the past year, I’ve been fortunate to be a Brueggeman Fellow through Xavier University’s Center for Dialogue. Through my time at The Hive, the late poet John O’Donohue drew me into the lineage of Celtic spirituality and its various expressions in indigenous and early Christian practice. Celtic spirituality has been the focus of my fellowship research, and now my research is culminating in an immersion trip to experience the landscapes and ancient sacred sites in the Inner Hebrides in Scotland, the Holy Island in Northern England, and John O’Donohue’s homeland of western Ireland.

There have been a few questions that have been fueling my research, and now inform my approach to my trip:

How might Celtic theological understandings of our relationship to divinity empower human agency, rather than diminish it — like theological metaphor modeled after imperial and patriarchal structures diminish human agency?

How might Celtic spiritual practice facilitate a more mutual relationship with the earth?

How might the contemplative dimensions of Celtic spirituality (i.e. blessing, pilgrimage, labyrinths, spiritual direction) enrich spiritual care in America?

I’ll plan on updating this blog with my experiences and thoughts on the above questions throughout my trip. Below is a list of places I’ll be visiting throughout my month-long adventure!

Thanks in advance for following along!

Cheers,

Chris