James Behan

Pagan Ireland embraced Christianity with a passion!

We are taken on a spiritual journey to see how Irish Christianity shaped the West. In its golden age of monks and monasteries, learning and preaching, Irish Christianity spread far and wide, dissembling its own particular brand and imprinting it on the religious canvas.

Clearly written for the religious novice (pardon the pun!).

A good book with important information for those of us who follow history.

The only reason much of what we now call western civilization is available is that Irish monks preserved it. This tells us how that happened.

Far ranging, we read about everyone from fourth-century Augustine to Charlemagne to Galileo. The book wanders some, but the information is interesting.

There are a lot of people to follow and many of them have similar names. You need to pay attention as you read or you will lose show more track. Still, a pretty good read that offers interesting information presented in a reasonably interesting way. show less

In The Secret Gospel of Ireland, brothers James & Leo Beham shed light on the special role the Emerald Island played in the development and spread of Christianity in both Europe and America. Many celebrate St. Patrick’s Day each year, but only a few know the backgrounds. St. Patrick, born as a slave in nowadays northern Africa lived in the final years of the Roman Empire. The ancient Romans never conquered Ireland, Patrick sailed to Ireland and planted the gospel there. In the process of show more converting from paganism to Christianity, the ancient Irish developed a remarkable approach to the Christian faith that would one day make science, democracy, and our modern world possible. They resisted to place earthly kings to head the church. Irish monks began pouring out of Ireland to build monasteries throughout Western Europe. Lindisfarne and Iona were famous outposts for further spreading the gospel. Monasteries included schools, hospitals and became the primary social institution in Western Europe during the so-called Dark Ages. They led to the creation of Europe’s first universities at Bologna, Paris, and Oxford. And the Irish monks invented lower case letters (which was called Carolingian minuscule). These developments in culture, education, government, and writing would eventually lead to the development of our modern world., including modern science and democracy.
In The Secret Gospel of Ireland there’s a lot of attention to Middle Ages history. You meet several church fathers like Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas and reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli up to Thomas Jefferson and the foundations of modern era European countries and the United States of America. Thanks to St. Patrick. show less