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Feminism. Celtic Christians, it is said, had abbesses and female druids and were not devoted solely to male ministry.

Environmental concern. It is claimed that Celts lived happily with nature, whereas modern Christians have dominated and spoiled it.

Given the range of genuine texts, one can find something that seems to support one claim or another (e.g. the Celts' love of nature or the immanence of God), but it is doubtful whether one can extrapolate a systematic Celtic theology that justifies these claims. There was no one Celtic church, only a variety of monastic centers that celebrated faith in similar but diverse ways.

Furthermore, many of the supposed features of Celtic Christianity are responses to falsely perceived contrasts. Indeed the Celts had a deep appreciation of God's immanence, but also of his transcendence: "Be Thou My Vision" repeatedly exalts the "high King of Heaven."

They gloried in God's love, but they also feared his judgment. The composer of the Altus Prosator ("High Creator," a hymn usually ascribed to Columba) wrote, "It seems doubtful to no one that there is a hell down there … where there is screaming of men, weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Christians in Celtic lands may have created simpler ecclesiastical structures, but only because their social situation or spiritual aspirations demanded it. The larger Irish monasteries were often complex in terms of layout and the number of buildings within the enclosure. Hermits lived in simple cells, but not all monks were hermits.

Celtic Christians certainly weren't always tolerant toward paganism; stories of the saints confronting and defeating druids (even causing their deaths), like Patrick at Tara, abound in Irish literature. Some early Irish poets, like Oengus Cele De, rejoice in the triumph of Christianity: "Paganism has been destroyed though it was splendid and far-flung; the kingdom of God the Father has filled heaven and earth and sea."

As far as feminism, the stories of Brigit, even if they are true, are the exception that prove the rule: social structures in the medieval world were patriarchal.

And as for the environment: they may have appreciated creation more than their European brethren, but as Gilbert Márkus puts it, "There is nothing distinctively Celtic about the sense of God's presence in the natural world."

The current movement, then, is mostly a reflection of the needs and feelings of modernity, and that is one reason it is so popular. To put it simply, Celtic Christianity is partly seen as a remedy for modern maladies.

Many today are wearied of existing trends in politics and national life, having suffered burnout in the fiercely competitive world of the 1980s and 1990s. Many are also weary of conventional churches, which they feel have failed to address contemporary issues. During the 1980s, a number of concerns, from ecology to ecclesiology began to surface in the British Isles (and elsewhere).

The environment was a primary concern. As cities grew, the ozone layer began to deplete. Questions about how to use land and how to care for the natural world became significant. Celtic lands began to be viewed afresh as a region where life could be lived as God and nature intended.

There was also increasing fascination with simple lifestyle, frustration with global mass culture, increased support for women's rights, more concern about mistreatment of animals, and a host of other issues.

The churches have faced criticism because of their failure to tackle these issues, and they've seen massive changes in the religious map. Beginning in the 1960s, people in the West began to show interest in Eastern religions. The growth in global communication and increasing ease of transport allowed the East to evangelize the West in new ways.

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