Bibliography
Katja
Ritari s. xx–xxi
Works authored
Ritari, Katja, Pilgrimage to heaven: eschatology and monastic spirituality in early medieval Ireland, Studia Traditionis Theologiae, 23, Turnhout: Brepols, 2016. XI + 223 pp.
abstract:
This book focuses on the expectation of the Judgment and the afterlife in early medieval Irish monastic spirituality. It has been claimed that in the Early Middle Ages, Christianity became for the first time a truly otherworldly religion and in monastic spirituality this otherworldly perspective gained an especially prominent role. In this book, Dr Ritari explores the role of this eschatological expectation in various sources, including hagiography produced by the monastic familia of St Columba, the sermons of St Columbanus, the Navigatio sancti Brendani portraying St Brendan’s sea voyages, and the vision attributed to St Adomnán about Heaven and Hell. One recurrent image used by the Irish authors to portray the Christian path to Heaven is the image of peregrinatio, a life-long pilgrimage. Viewing human life in this perspective inevitably influenced the human relationship with the world making the monastic into a pilgrim who is not supposed to get attached to anything encountered on the way but to keep constantly in mind the end of the journey.
(source: Brepols)
abstract:
This book focuses on the expectation of the Judgment and the afterlife in early medieval Irish monastic spirituality. It has been claimed that in the Early Middle Ages, Christianity became for the first time a truly otherworldly religion and in monastic spirituality this otherworldly perspective gained an especially prominent role. In this book, Dr Ritari explores the role of this eschatological expectation in various sources, including hagiography produced by the monastic familia of St Columba, the sermons of St Columbanus, the Navigatio sancti Brendani portraying St Brendan’s sea voyages, and the vision attributed to St Adomnán about Heaven and Hell. One recurrent image used by the Irish authors to portray the Christian path to Heaven is the image of peregrinatio, a life-long pilgrimage. Viewing human life in this perspective inevitably influenced the human relationship with the world making the monastic into a pilgrim who is not supposed to get attached to anything encountered on the way but to keep constantly in mind the end of the journey.
(source: Brepols)
Works edited
Ritari, Katja, and Alexandra Bergholm (eds), Understanding Celtic religion: revisiting the pagan past, New Approaches to Celtic Religion and Mythology, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2015.
abstract:
Although it has long been acknowledged that the early Irish literary corpus preserves both pre-Christian and Christian elements, the challenges involved in the understanding of these different strata have not been subjected to critical examination. This volume draws attention to the importance of reconsidering the relationship between religion and mythology, as well as the concept of ‘Celtic religion’ itself. When scholars are attempting to construct the so-called ‘Celtic’ belief system, what counts as ‘religion’? Or, when labelling something as ‘religion’ as opposed to ‘mythology’, what do these entities entail? This volume is the first interdisciplinary collection of articles which critically reevaluates the methodological challenges of the study of ‘Celtic religion’; the authors are eminent scholars in the field of Celtic Studies representing the disciplines of theology, literary studies, history, law and archaeology, and the book represents a significant contribution to the present scholarly debate concerning the pre-Christian elements in early medieval source materials.
abstract:
Although it has long been acknowledged that the early Irish literary corpus preserves both pre-Christian and Christian elements, the challenges involved in the understanding of these different strata have not been subjected to critical examination. This volume draws attention to the importance of reconsidering the relationship between religion and mythology, as well as the concept of ‘Celtic religion’ itself. When scholars are attempting to construct the so-called ‘Celtic’ belief system, what counts as ‘religion’? Or, when labelling something as ‘religion’ as opposed to ‘mythology’, what do these entities entail? This volume is the first interdisciplinary collection of articles which critically reevaluates the methodological challenges of the study of ‘Celtic religion’; the authors are eminent scholars in the field of Celtic Studies representing the disciplines of theology, literary studies, history, law and archaeology, and the book represents a significant contribution to the present scholarly debate concerning the pre-Christian elements in early medieval source materials.
Contributions to journals
Ritari, Katja, “‘Whence is the origin of the Gaels?’: remembering the past in Irish pseudohistorical poems”, Peritia 28 (2017): 155–176.
abstract:
This article explores the construction of Irish identity in the pseudohistorical poems of two authors, Máel Muru Othna and Gilla Cóemáin. In their poems, the memory of the past - real or imagined - is used to establish a continuity for the Irish as a clearly delineated people from the dawn of time to the authors’ medieval present.
abstract:
This article explores the construction of Irish identity in the pseudohistorical poems of two authors, Máel Muru Othna and Gilla Cóemáin. In their poems, the memory of the past - real or imagined - is used to establish a continuity for the Irish as a clearly delineated people from the dawn of time to the authors’ medieval present.
Ritari, Katja, and Alexandra Bergholm, “Fingal Rónáin: Rónánin suvun surma”, Studia Celtica Fennica 13 (2016): 23–32.
Studia Celtica Fennica: <link>
Ritari, Katja, “Images of ageing in the early Irish poem Caillech Bérri”, Studia Celtica Fennica 3 (2006): 57–70.
Studia Celtica Fennica: <link>
Ritari, Katja, “How should Christians lead their lives? An exploration of the image of lay people in Adomnán’s Vita Columbae”, Studia Celtica Fennica 2 — Essays in honour of Anders Ahlqvist (2005): 138–151.
SFKS – PDF: <link>
Ritari, Katja, “From pagan to Christian in the 7th century: Irish hagiography”, Studia Celtica Fennica 1 (2004): 14–23.
: <link>
