Public Lecture by Prof. Jonathan Wooding

On Thursday 12 March 2015, a delegation from St Andrew's including Mario Baghos (Associate Lecturer in Church History), Chris Baghos (IT & Registry Officer; Master of Arts student) and Mr Andrew Mellas (a good friend of the College and regular contributor to its journal, Phronema) attended Jonathan Wooding's (Sir Warwick Professor of Celtic Studies at Sydney University) 'Insights' lecture at the University of Sydney which was entitled ‘Oceans of Becoming: the Sea and Celtic Identity.’ We thoroughly enjoyed the event, and the following are some reflections by Mario Baghos after it:

"Professor Wooding's presentation was a tour de force of interdisciplinary scholarship the likes of which is rarely encountered in the academy. He began by recalling his interest in Celtic studies during his postgraduate days at the University of Sydney, giving the presentation a personal touch before embarking on his deft navigation of the various fields of study encompassed by his own research, including maritime archaeology, historical studies, and the literature (hagiographical and otherwise) of the period. Taking us on a pictorial journey from Ireland to Iceland, Professor Wooding affirmed that the tendency to look at the archaeological evidence alone in relation to the Celtic maritime experience has yielded incomplete results; namely, that early medieval traders undertook these travels for utilitarian purposes. But when one examines the archaeological findings in conjunction with the historical and literary evidence then a more complete portrait emerges; that these Celtic monks considered themselves as standing vigil at the world’s end. Striving to stay in a state of readiness for the coming Saviour, they envisioned their monasteries as liminal spaces that continued the journey between this world and the next; journeys which for many of them began with the serious consideration of the ocean as a means of ascetical renewal, as a place of becoming."