For the first time we see through the theological mind of Adomnan the mission of Columba bringing the Kingdom of God to Pict and Scot. The question is, was Adomnan simply following fashion (miracles proved sanctity, and thereby authorized the cult and its politically minded promoters), or did he also have a more sophisticated understanding of the nature and function of these authority-providing marvels that he systematizes uniquely: prophecy, miracles of power, visions? This book surveys approaches to the marvelous, tracing the intriguing recent growth in scholarly open-mindedness, and shows Plummer's 1910 hypothesis of the origin of Irish saga to be inadequate. Adomnan identifies the phenomena firmly as signs of the inbreaking eschatological Kingdom of God. Directed by the Spirit of prophecy, in miracles of transforming power, with angels and glimpses of the glory of God's presence, the conditions of the new earth are made tantalizingly present in sixth-century ""Scotland."" The Spirit bringing the Kingdom is the mission of the church. How this is present in his Life recasts the missionary identity of Columba from a new perspective and poses questions for the task of the church today. ""When I first read James Bruce's volume as a PhD thesis several years ago, I was agreeably struck by the originality of his clear and readable approach to a subject of immense complexity. Now that Dr. Bruce's thesis is published my delight is that others will be similarly able to derive benefit from his penetrating insight."" --Robert Gillies, Rector, St. Andrew's ""Bruce provides a scintillating, elegant, and methodologically exemplary reading of the nature and function of charismata in Adomnan's Life of St Columba, showing they were to be understood as expressions of the biblical Spirit of prophecy, and as the flowering in his day of the coming Kingdom of God. Bruce's study not only throws light on this fascinating charismatic missionary and his earliest biographer, but also illuminates a spirituality that offers an implicit challenge to our day."" --Max Turner, London School of Theology James Bruce is married with four children and is Rector of the New Forest parishes of Lyndhurst, Emery Down, and Minstead in England.