The Great Emergence
Well, I finished reading The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle. I’m kind of bad at writing reviews, because I take a long time to process things, but It’s a decent book. I give it a 6.5 out of 10, but I will read it again, eventually.
Tickle gives a fair overview of the history of the church and its movements. According to her, we are currently in “the great emergence.” Where the church will land is yet to be known. As Tickle argues, every 500 years there is a new shift in Christendom, or as Tickle calls it, the “500 year rummage sale,” when the church replaces its old forms of spirituality with newer ones. The old forms are not wrong. They just become passe. The last “rummage sale” was the Reformation (1517). Before that was the Great Schism of the 11th century. Roughly 500 years before that was Constantine. So, I think Tickle is on to something. It will be interesting to see where our emergence is taking us. How will culture continue to shape the church as it did in the past? Regardless, the Spirit controls its direction.
