THE ORAN MOR PROJECT

Revisioning Christianity in the Post-Christian, Post-Secular Era

In the Celtic imagination, the world came to be and was kept in being by the Oran Mor(Gaelic for Great Song – a divine symphony infused throughout all of nature. For Christians, Jesus sings and embodies this song.

The Oran Mor Project invites thought leaders, artists, and theologians to revitalize Christianity in post-Christian Western culture by aligning the wisdom of the Christian past with the best contemporary learning, science, and sensibilities.

As Christianity continues to recede from cultural influence, the way forward cannot be more of the same or doubling down on the past. Christianity has become moribund, in part, because it has failed to align its theological insights and claims with contemporary intellectual and scientific standards. Perhaps worse, many Christians continue to cling to Iron Age moral views. The Church is singing out of tune with the better aspects of contemporary insights, resulting in discord rather than harmony.

There is no silver bullet or singular solution. The Oran Mor Project believes that sources of renewal include, but are not limited to, Celtic Christianity, Radical Orthodoxy, and the best aspects of Catholic and Anglican theology.

The way forward requires us to attune our ears to the Great Song and dance accordingly.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

  • About The Project

    The Oran Mor Project seeks authentic, organic ways of being a Christian in a post-Christian, post-Secular world.

    The Project is ecumenical but is heavily influenced by Catholicism and Anglicanism.

    The project has two aims:

    Scholarship - sharing ideas through conversations, articles, essays, and resources.

    Community - gathering like-minded thinkers online and in person for discussion, prayer, ritual, and friendship.

    We do not seek to establish a new denomination; our participants belong to various Christian traditions and communities. Our activities supplement other commitments.

    The Project is in its early stages. To learn more, reach out to Gregory.

  • Oran Mor

    In the Celtic imagination, the world came to be and was kept in being by the Oran Mor, the great song – a divine symphony infused throughout all of nature.

    For eons, the Celtic spiritual imagination has heard the Oran Mor in the turning of the seasons, the flowering of the fields, the harvesting of crops, and the patterns of the sun, moon, and stars.

    The great song is equally heard and amplified in friendship, romance, family, and acts of loving-kindness.

    For Christians, Jesus embodies the meaning of the Great Song.

    In this sense, Oran Mor symbolizes the creative, sustaining power(s) of the divine infused within the world. It is part of the broader immanent vision that led the Celts to deem nature and all life sacred.

  • Ionain Christian Spirituality

    Ionain Christian spirituality is a contemporary form of Celtic Christianity. It blends the ancient practices with Catholic and Anglican sacramental and social traditions and the contemplative simplicity of New Monasticism.

    This spiritual path is partly grounded in ancient Celtic Christianity, which developed around the Irish and British monastic centers in Glendalough, Armagh, Lindisfarne, and Iona in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Centuries.

    While ancient sources inspire us, ours is a modern spirituality grounded in inclusivity, the best of human learning, and contemporary sensibilities.

    It is a spirituality that encourages people to find the Divine within themselves, others, and the world.

    To see this path embodied, explore the Iona Community, centered around Iona Abbey in Scotland, which serves as our informal mother church and inspiration.

Get Involved

The Oran Mor Project is working on new initiatives for the weeks and months ahead. Among the ideas being weighed are the following:

  • An Academic Online Journal

  • Online Symposiums & Mini-Conferences

  • Regional Gatherings

  • Online Discussion Forum

Interested in learning more or getting involved? Reach out to Gregory.

FOUNDATIONS

  • Our Sources

    Our work is focused on the insights of the following sources:

    1. We root ourselves in the Catholic and Anglican traditions, which robustly but imperfectly embody the fullness of Western Christianity. We recognize that these traditions are not monolithic and that a broad and generous orthodoxy exists in all its organic diversity.

    2. We seek to build upon the insights of Radical Orthodoxy, Nouvelle Theologie, Christian Personalism, and the Catholic and Anglican social teaching traditions.

    3. We find value in Celtic Christian spirituality and practices, emphasizing the sacramentality of nature, hospitality and inclusion, authentic community, and practice of the works of mercy.

    We remain open to any source or tradition that aligns with our principles and furthers our objectives.

  • Our Principles

    Our work is guided by the following theological principles:

    1. HUMILITY

    We undertake the Christian life with profound humility, rejecting self-righteousness, self-importance, triumphalism, and spiritual smugness.

    Restoring Christendom is not our goal or mission. Christianity must always be an invitation, never imposed. The same humility should be evident in our theology and in our expression of our convictions to others.

    We recognize that how we live and relate to others is the fullest expression of our theological thinking.

  • 2.  EVERYTHING IS IN GOD

    All creation is an emanation of the Divine. All exists in God, and God is in all. Therefore, reality possesses an inherent sacredness.

    This necessitates a holistic perspective that rejects artificial dichotomies between the natural and supernatural. The spiritual and mundane become indistinguishable, and the two collapse into one sacred whole. Attuning our perception to see this is the goal of any spiritual path.

    Every aspect of existence participates in the transcendent and should be aligned with this Divine order.  Since all is in God, all that seeks to bracket out God is ultimately nihilistic.

    Further, the seamless integration of reason and religious conviction is crucial. We must renew our understanding of the nature of Divinity, which aligns with the best of human learning, science, spiritual imagination, myth, and poetry.

  • 3. RECENTERING ON A RENEWED UNDERSTANDING OF JESUS

    Jesus is the architectonic revelation of Divinity and humanity. In him and through him we find meaning and life.

    The core of Christian living is aligning our lives with Jesus's teachings and example. To achieve this, we must diligently refine our understanding of the historical Jesus. This necessitates careful engagement with scholarship in historical Jesus studies, hermeneutics, and textual criticism.

    Further, we must move beyond simplistic interpretations of Jesus as merely a sacrificial victim. Concepts like original sin and substitutionary atonement require critical examination and are problematic and unjustified in most current forms.

    A deeper understanding of Jesus within his historical and cultural context will ultimately enrich our knowledge and practice of the Christian life.

  • 4. THE KINGDOM IS NOW

    The Kingdom of God is not a distant, heavenly ideal but a present reality open to all who embrace love and mercy. It is accessible to those who are spiritually discerning and compassionate, with open hearts and hands.

    The Universal Church, understood as the Mystical Body of Christ encompassing all followers of Jesus, embodies the visible presence of the Kingdom and serves as a foreshadowing of God's ultimate reign. Sacramental practices and the works of mercy are essential expressions of participation in the Divine life of love. Frequent participation in the Eucharist is commended.

    At the same time, institutional structures, denominational affiliations, clerical authority, and the traditional 20th-century American church model must be deemphasized. Instead, the focus should be on fostering organic community, embracing sacramental living, and promoting transformative action within local contexts and the broader institutional structures.

  • 5. SALVATION AS WHOLENESS AND HOLISTIC

    The Church, in all its forms, must vigorously proclaim and defend human dignity and oppose the dehumanizing forces of empire, secularism, and nihilism. Salvation should be understood as wholeness and holistic human flourishing. As Irenaeus reminds us, the Glory of God is the human person fully alive. Moral life is an outflow of the logic of our very nature.

    We insist on making Jesus’ rejection of moralism, legalism, and literalism – all of which tempt us to build walls, control others, and establish abusive power structures – central to our understanding of Christian practice and communal organization.

    Given our intrinsic social nature, salvation is as personal as communal. It is not a goal to be achieved but a way of being in the world that is aligned with God.

  • 6. A REVISED THEOLOGICAL METHODOLOGY

    We are responsible for producing an evidence-based theological approach that balances mythopoetic, symbolic thinking, and understanding of allegory, symbol, and ritual with solid scholarship. This is a broad call for the Christian religious imagination to be transformed by a new courageous encounter with the best of contemporary reason, science, and learning.

    Theology also functions through theurgy, which is understood as sacred work. This work is also called liturgy, where our convictions are enacted in narrative ritual that brings them and us to life. Theological scholarship and liturgy cannot be separated; to do so is a form of violence.

    Recognizing the inherent sacramental nature of reality and the interconnectedness of beauty, goodness, and truth, all theological expression, liturgical practices, and indeed our entire lives should strive for beauty and the capacity to open us to the transcendent.

  • 7. A COMMITMENT TO THE WORKS OF MERCY

    The 25th chapter of Matthew’s gospel provides a powerful framework for understanding the importance of the works of mercy as part of the fullness of Christian living and the most effective form of evangelization.

    Jesus explicitly links holiness to our service to the least of these: the hungry, the thirsty, the imprisoned, and the stranger. This group includes the marginalized, the oppressed, the lonely, and the unwanted. It also includes the difficult, the annoying, and those we disagree with politically, morally, and theologically.

    By actively engaging in acts of compassion, we embody the Divine love and become living witnesses to the Gospel's transformative power. Our words may fall on deaf ears, but our actions speak volumes. We must practically demonstrate the tangible reality of God's love in a world often marked by indifference and suffering.  

    Further, the works of mercy are not optional charitable acts; they are commanded opportunities for authentic encounters and genuine human connection.

    To neglect the works of mercy is to ignore and neglect Jesus.

COMMUNITY

  • Iona Community

    The Iona Community is a globally dispersed, ecumenical Christian movement centered around the historical Iona Abbey in Scotland.

    The community is motivated by Jesus’ proclamation of a just new order of love, a set of shared commitments, a rule of life, and the creative spiritual practices of prayer, song, silence, and sacrament.

    Gregory is a community member, but the community has no formal ties to the Oran Mor Project, and the project does not speak for or represent the community in any way.

  • Nourish

    Nourish is a Grand Rapids area experiment in organic spiritual community.

    It is an ongoing series of sporadic, informal gatherings that seek to nourish minds, souls, and bodies.

    We meet at participant’s homes for discussion, prayer, socializing, food and drink, and fun.

    The group seeks to embody Anam Cara, a Celtic concept of a soul friend in religion and spirituality.

    To learn more, reach out to Gregory.

  • Organizations

    •. Iona Community

    •  Northumbria Community

    •  Community of Aidan & Hilda

    •  Diseart Centre for Irish Spirituality

    • The Celtic Center

    • Centre for Theology & Philosophy
    University of Nottingham

IDEAS - ARTICLES

READING LIST

  • THE CRISIS OF MEANING

    Amythia
    Loyal Rue

    Zombies in Western Culture
    John Vervaeke

    After Virtue
    Alasdair MacIntyre

    Whose Justice? Which Rationality?
    Alasdair MacIntyre

    The Meaning of the West
    Don Cupitt

    A Secular Age
    Charles Taylor

    Liquid Modernity
    Zygmunt Bauman

    Thus Spoke Zarathustra
    F. Nietzsche

    Letter to a Christian Nation
    Sam Harris

    All Things Shining
    Dreyfus & Kelly, Eds

    The Secularization of the European Mind Owen Chadwick

    Sexual Personae
    Camille Paglia

    The True Europe
    Benedict XVI

    Western Culture: Today & Tomorrow
    Benedict XVI

    NATURALISM & RELIGION

    Between Naturalism & Religion
    Jurgen Habermas

    An Awareness of What Is Missing
    Jurgen Habermas

    Nature & Normativity
    De Caro & Macarthur, eds

    Mind & Cosmos
    Thomas Nagel

    Emergentism
    Brendan Graham Dempsey

    Phenomenology, Naturalism, and Science Jack Reynolds

    The Routledge Handbook of Liberal Naturalism
    De Caro & Macarthar, Eds

  • TOWARD A HEALTHY CHRISTIANITY

    The Experience of God
    David Bentley Hart

    A History of God
    Karen Armstrong

    The Case for God
    Karen Armstrong

    God Is No Thing
    Rupert Shortt

    We Who Wrestle With God
    Jordan Peterson

    Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography
    John Dominic Crossan

    Revolutionary
    Tom Holland

    Beyond the Passion
    Stephen J. Patterson

    Dominion
    Tom Holland

    God & Empire
    John Dominic Crossan

    The Sermon on the Mount
    Amy Jill Levine

    The Non-Violent Atonement
    Denny Weaver

    The Didache
    Thomas O’Loughlin

    The Works of Mercy
    Mark Shea

    The Patient Ferment: Early Christianity
    Alan Kreider

    The Rise of Christianity
    Rodney Stark

    Ancient Christianities
    Paula Fredriksen

    Rethinking Liberal Christianity
    Theo Hobson

    How to Read the Bible and Remain a Christian
    John Dominic Crossan

    The Resurrection of Jesus
    John Dominic Crossan & NT Wright

    Paul Among the People
    Sarah Rudden

    Religious Freedom in a Secular Age
    Michael Bird

    Jesus: A Marginal Jew (Vol I - V)
    John P. Meier

    The Selfhood of the Human Person
    John F. Crosby

    Just Love
    Margaret Farley

  • CELTIC CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY

    Celtic Theology
    Thomas O’Loughlin

    Journeys From the Edges
    Thomas O’Loughlin

    The Rule of the Iona Community
    Kathy Galloway

    The Story of Iona
    Rosemary Power

    Water from an Ancient Well
    Kenneth McIntosh

    Following the Celtic Way: A New Assessment
    Ian Bradley

    Listening to the Heartbeat of God
    J. Philip Newell

    Christ of the Celts
    J. Philip Newell

    The History of Christianity in Britain & Ireland
    Gerald Bray

    The Rise & Fall of Christian Ireland
    Crawford & Gribben

    A Celtic Christology
    John Gavin

    NEW MONASTICISM

    Crafting a Rule of Life
    Stephen Macchia

    Benedict’s Way
    Pratt & Homan

    Radical Hospitality
    Pratt & Homan

    An Ocean of Light
    Martin Laird

    Silence: Mystery of Wholeness
    Robert Sardello

    Finding Our Way Again
    Brian McLaren

    Voluntary Simplicity
    Duane Elgin

    The Works of Mercy
    Mark Shea

  • CATHOLICISM

    The General Councils
    Christopher Bellitto

    A Truly Catholic. Church
    Thomas Rausch, SJ

    Systematic Catholic Theology
    Thomas Rausch, SJ

    The Documents of Vatican II
    Second Vatican Council

    The Social Encyclicals
    Modern Catholic Popes

    Encyclicals & Writings
    John Paul II

    A Systematic Theology in Outline
    Aidan Nicols, OP

    The Shape of Catholic Theology
    Aidan Nichols, OP

    Novelle Theologie & Sacramental Ontology
    Hans Boersma

    Ressourcement
    Flynn & Murray

    The Radical Orthodoxy Reader
    John Milbank, et al

    Aspects of Truth
    Catherine Pickstock

    A Church That Changes and Can Change
    John Noonan

    Creative Fidelity
    Francis A. Sullivan, SJ

    Diversity & Communion
    Yves Congar, OP

    The Meaning of Tradition
    Yves Congar, OP

    The Development of Christian Doctrine
    John Henry Newman

    The Eucharist
    Edward Schillebeeckx

    Models of the Church
    Avery Dulles, SJ

    The Craft of Theology
    Avery Dulles, SJ

    The Catholicity of the Church
    Avery Dulles, SJ

    Models of Revelation
    Avery Dulles, SJ

    The Splendor of the Church
    Henri de Lubac, SJ

    The Mystery of the Supernatural
    Henri de Lubac, SJ

    The Glory of the Lord (Vol I-IV)
    Hans urs von Balthasar, SJ

    Prayer As a Political Problem
    Jean Danielou, SJ