'I have herd the sound of wailing in unnumbered Hovels, and I must go down, down I know not where'

Harry Clarke's Geneva Window of 1929 with the lines from Yeats' play, The Countess Cathleen, evokes a sense of the wonder and beauty of redemptive love, with all its latent power to transform. 

Does love of this kind make a difference as to how we should view human history? Must tragedy hold sole sway or is there the possibility of redemption through a love that turns outward to break oppression? 

Is there a hope for the body politic that embraces the claims of the meek of the earth? Redemption in Irish History has been written with the conviction that Irish history, in its many phases, offers rich insights into these universal questions.

John Marsden, who teaches theology and Christian social ethics, and is Church of Ireland Rector of Newbridge, offers readers an Irish contextual theology.

Redemption in Irish History came at a critical historical juncture for Irish society and Irish Christianity. Through bringing theology, politics, history and economics into creative dialogue, it offers a integrative vision of how Irish society might be nourished from the best of its diverse traditions and thereby truly flourish in our increasingly inter-dependant world. 

With chapters on Pearse and Connolly, history, theology, politics, economics come together in creative dialogue to illuminate topics such as nationalism, unionism, and republicanism.

‘ … argues persuasively that a theology of redemption that is not just other-worldly can be a cogent tool in mobilising the political forces necessary to create a more just and caring society in both parts of this island.’ – T.P. O’Mahony in Doctrine & Life

About the Author

John Marsden teaches Theology and Christian Social Ethics, he is a Church of Ireland Rector of Newbridge and offers readers contextual theology.