Rome and the Isles: Ireland, England and the Rhetoric of Orthodoxy

This chapter examines the Roman influence on the religious orthodoxy in Ireland and England. It explains that the earliest writers presented the adoption of Christianity as a spiritual rebirth which transcended their physical birth. The chapter also suggests that the earliest of Irish literature can be considered a forceful affirmation of the importance of Christian universality and an indictment of those who refused to acknowledge the significance of this principle or who would undermine it.