Faction
Warren Bardsley, a retired Methodist pastor and an associate member of the Iona Community has written a work of faction about Adomnan (pronounced Adovnaun), the ninth abbot of Iona. Faction is the merger of facts and fiction that is appropriate here as the reliable historical facts from the second half of the seventh century are scarce. (Adomnan was born about AD627 and died in AD704.) This process has been carried out with sensitivity and imagination so the result is both accessible and believable.
Biography
As a historical biography it is interesting reconstruction but the the book also has a deeper contemporary angle. The author sees Adomnan's major work, The Law of Innocents from 697AD as particularly relevant for today. This law can be seen as a very early form of the Geneva Convention and was widely influential in its time. The law was to protect non-combatants in warfare. Originally it only applied to women but it was expanded during the process of drafting to include children and clerics.
Legend has it that the foundation for this law was a traumatic experience in his early life. His mother found a young mother slaughter in warfare and tried to save her suckling baby. Following this incident Adomnan give a solemn promise to his mother that he would work to protect women during times of conflict.
As well as being Abbot of Iona and a scholar and writer he was also a persuasive politician and diplomat. This is shown through his persuasion of clan chiefs and kings in Ireland and northern Britain to accept and implement his law.
Difficult times
This was the time, after the Synod of Whitby, when the Celtic church was under pressure to conform to the authority of Rome specifically in regard to the issues of the tonsure and the date of Easter. Bardsley's book also considers the diplomatic skills that Adomnan possessed as he worked with the tension of these strongly held convictions in his community and church.
Relevance for today
But this book is not just a historical reconstruction of a time when the monasteries were major players in the political world. Throughout the author reflects on the contemporary parallels in the church and world of our time. As with all Iona Community based spirituality the principles of these ancient Celtic texts are linked to the contemporary political agenda. The book contains a liturgy used at Fas lane Trident missile base citing Adomnan's law to condemn weapons of mass destruction.
Each chapter contains a reconstruction of Adomnan's life and a reflection relating the issues raised to the present. Some of the chapters also contained a short imaginary dialogue between contemporaries about Adomnan.
I recommend this book as an easy to read introduction to the complexities of life of the distant past with deep resonances for our contemporary age. The royalties from this book are going to the Iona communities “Growing Hope Appeal”.
