Celtic Christianity in the Victorian Era: An Exploration Through Literature

Abstract

In the 1880s and 1890s, the British Isles-Ireland especially-experienced a Celtic Literary Revival. Drawing on both history and religion, this revival focused on aspects of old Celtic spirituality and how their beliefs were intertwined with the natural world around them. While not everyone was sympathetic to this sense of spirituality and nostalgia, the revival did gain traction amongst many authors of the time. Using the works of influential writers like William Butler Yeats and the Rhymers Club, this paper seeks to explore how Celtic spirituality was being rediscovered and interpreted during the late Victorian period.