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Celtic Spirituality

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Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion

Celtic spirituality is a contemporary term that encompasses practices, beliefs, attitudes, and values that are loosely based on themes and remnants of Ancient Celtic traditions that survive in fairy tales and Celtic mythology. It is difficult to ascribe to the Celtic tribes an ancient, coherent, and organized religious structure, though arguably Druidry in various permutations embodied religious elements. For this reason, the term “spirituality” is particularly useful when describing contemporary Celtic spiritual practices, as it is widely regarded as embodying less authoritative, organized, institutional, and dogmatic phenomena than is generally implied by the term “religion.” Many scholarly works, book, and websites are devoted to discussion of the distinction and relationship between religion and spirituality, a full consideration of which is beyond the scope of this article.

Contemporary Celtic spirituality routinely and syncretically blends Christian and Pagan elements of ideology...

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Bibliography

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Correspondence to M. J. Drake Spaeth .

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Spaeth, M.J.D. (2014). Celtic Spirituality. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_101

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_101

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6085-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6086-2

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