News of "The Celtic Arc" Project
(http://celtic-arc.upelsinka.com)

In 2006-2007 within the framework of center’s publishing program we are planning to publish a translation of John O’Donohue’s “The Book of Celtic Wisdom”, Ray Simpson’s book “Soul Friendship” and Collection of stories about St. Lynas. This is the first time the book is being published in Russian. Rights for the publication have not been given to other persons or organizations.

A short annotation of the edition:

1. John O’Donohue. The Book of Celtic Wisdom

The Author of “The Book of Celtic Wisdom” is an Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue. This book became “the card” into the world of Celtic spirituality where the concept of friendship is one of the key ones. As the author says: “In essence, this book attempts a phenomenology of friendship in a lyrical-speculative form. It takes its inspiration from the implied and lyrical metaphysics of Celtic spirituality. Rather than being a piecemeal analysis of Celtic data, it attempts a somewhat broader reflection, an inner conversation with the Celtic imagination, endeavoring to thematize its implied philosophy and spirituality of friendship”.

2. Ray Simpson. Soul Friendship

Friendship is one of the key concepts in the tradition of Celtic Christianity. But at the same time it is possible to say that friendship is one of the corner-stone concepts in Christian ethics as a whole and today it is in the middle of attention of western Christians because “Soul friendship” in English-language literature presupposes a harmonic combination of spiritual, soul and bodily. In his book Ray Simpson tells about the connection of ancient Celtic spirituality with the Biblical tradition; he illustrates the attitudes of Celtic Christians to friendship with stories of their lives and works that survived till our times.

3. Collection of stories about St. Lynas

Humorous and at the same time thoughtful stories about a wise monk St. Lynas were created by an English journalist named Frank Pagen when he was working for BBC radio. This is how the author himself presents his hero: “St Lynas is a funny old man, an atavism of those awkward Celtic saints who caused St Augustine such headaches when he tried to bully them in the sixth century… He reads all the books on my shelves. Like a squirrel he collects stories from Arabia, America, India, and the Jewish Talmud, meets all my friends, listens very critically to all I say, pinches my jokes, polishes it all up, and then passes it off as his own”. A soft smile accompanying these stories and their aphoristic nature puts the tales the Russian reader is about to get to know in one line with the best examples of classical English humor.

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