09/07/2025 14:00
- 16:15
HALL: Seminar Room 05
Proponent:
Cupples A.
Chair:
Cupples A.
Speaker:
Cupples A.,
Kavanagh C.,
Swift C.,
Wooding J.M.
Throughout history, the early Irish church has often been portrayed as heterodox, idiosyncratic and as insignificant, being called 'pips on the ends of the earth.' Meanwhile, politicians, theologians, writers and historians take inspiration from it and its impact on European religion, culture and society e.g. Pope Benedict XVI credits the earliest use of the phrase totius Europae to an early Irish saint which Robert Schumann, one of the founders of the European Union, calls 'the patron saint of all those who now seek to build a united Europe'.
There is a continuing desideratum in the study of the early Irish church, particularly its theology, with most contributions being written from a narrow disciplinary perspective, and often with a partisan political and religious agenda, particularly regarding the Catholic and Protestant church. More recently, the terms 'Iromania' and 'Irophobia' have been used to describe the competing perspectives of the influence of the early Irish church in Europe and vice-versa.
This panel aims to address these lacunae and problems by welcoming papers from multiple disciplines and institutions to promote the non-partisan theological study of the early Irish church and its impact on European religion, society and culture.