Scan barcode
A review by quodfelix
The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why by Phyllis A. Tickle
5.0
I'll reread this one. It's a tight little book with some history to explain a great new emergence in the Christian Church, in line with other great changes that seem to occur every 500 years or so. Thus the Great Reformation, the Great Schism, and before that the reforms of Gregory the Great. While I wished for more evidence at times, I was grateful for its succinctness as an introduction to the Emerging Church.
I found it both challenging and encouraging in its observations about "traditional Christianity". It is struggling, but this struggle as those of previous great revolutions, will lead to a more vital church.
One point i found intriguing was her focus on the locus of authority changing in each instance. In the case of Gregory, in the papacy. In the case of the schism, authority was split between Rome and Constantinople. In the case of the Reformation, authority was in the Scripture. The current Great Emergence has been sparked by the challenge to the idea of sola scripture by Darwin and Freud and by Pentecostalism. Where the new authority will be is part of the question and the reason I want to reread this. A decentralized center? Network theory?
I'm glad I picked this up.
I found it both challenging and encouraging in its observations about "traditional Christianity". It is struggling, but this struggle as those of previous great revolutions, will lead to a more vital church.
One point i found intriguing was her focus on the locus of authority changing in each instance. In the case of Gregory, in the papacy. In the case of the schism, authority was split between Rome and Constantinople. In the case of the Reformation, authority was in the Scripture. The current Great Emergence has been sparked by the challenge to the idea of sola scripture by Darwin and Freud and by Pentecostalism. Where the new authority will be is part of the question and the reason I want to reread this. A decentralized center? Network theory?
I'm glad I picked this up.