Boyle, Elizabeth
(2010)
Eschatological Justice in Scéla laí brátha.
Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, 59.
pp. 39-54.
ISSN 13530089
Abstract
Scéla Laí Brátha is a Middle Irish homily on universal judgment preserved
only in Lebor na hUidre (Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 E 25).1
Written in a complex rhythmic and alliterative prose style, the text draws on
a wide range of sources, both poetic and homiletic, in Latin and Irish. The
purpose of the present study is to analyse the presentation in Scéla Laí
Brátha of the moment of collective judgment and the descriptions of the
eschatological kingdoms which, Christians believe, will exist thereafter. I
suggest that the central theme of the text is the role of Christ as the source of
ultimate justice, and that the author describes the communities of the elect
and the damned in terms of 'citizenship' of the civitas Dei or the civitas
diaboli. The extensive use of vocabulary pertaining to kingship, community,
and judgment is, I argue, a significant aspect of the literary coherence and
theological sophistication of a text which has hitherto been largely
overlooked by scholars of medieval Irish literature
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