Author: Phyllis Tickle
Review By: G. Stephen Goode
Phyllis Tickle is one of the spokespersons and historians for the Emerging/Emergent Church. Her premise in "the Great Emergence" is that there are major changes in Christendom that happen every 500 years and she takes the reader through those past events and brings us to the changes that are occurring now in the Global Church, particularly in the United States.
The reader will need to be prepared to read this book with a good dictionary at hand or by googling the definition of words online. If you are a history buff and a strategic thinker, this book will be a challenge to you. Ms. Tickle highlights timelines, people and events who have influenced along with inventions and technology to show what is emerging today in the global church. She spends quite a bit of time from the Reformation and what happened in the 20th Century and its impact upon the Church today, particularly regarding the centrality of Scripture and other trends that are shaping our faith and morality.
Then she shows what the church is looking like today and what is may look like or how it could be changing shape in the next couple of decades through a grid of those who come from liturgical, social justice Christians, renewalist and conservative backgrounds. I have heard Ms. Tickle speak on this subject and she is also an incredible speaker and one of the most popular speakers on religion in America today, not to mention that she is 70+ years old. This book will make you think and will encourage you to learn more of what is happening in the world.
