jdauer5's review against another edition
5.0
Almost 15 years after it was published, this book has much to offer about what and how Christianity is becoming around the world but especially in North America.
I can see how this book has informed the PCUSA's 1001 New Worshiping Community movement as well as many of the more recent line of thought amongst seminary scholars.
She writes that the emergent church is incarnational and finds authority in "network theory"/crowd-sourcing/no one has all the answers but we find Truth together in conversation and community. In this, truth can only be found through total egalitarianism, denying capitalism and individualism.
In the final pages of her book, Tickle writes, "The Great Emergence... will rewrite Christian theology—and thereby North American culture—into something far more Jewish, more paradoxical, more narrative, and more mystical than anything the Church has had for the last seventeen or eighteen hundred years." Amen.
I can see how this book has informed the PCUSA's 1001 New Worshiping Community movement as well as many of the more recent line of thought amongst seminary scholars.
She writes that the emergent church is incarnational and finds authority in "network theory"/crowd-sourcing/no one has all the answers but we find Truth together in conversation and community. In this, truth can only be found through total egalitarianism, denying capitalism and individualism.
In the final pages of her book, Tickle writes, "The Great Emergence... will rewrite Christian theology—and thereby North American culture—into something far more Jewish, more paradoxical, more narrative, and more mystical than anything the Church has had for the last seventeen or eighteen hundred years." Amen.
davehershey's review against another edition
4.0
Probably more like 4.5 stars.
Every 500 years something huge happens among the people of God: the Reformation in the 1500s, the Great Schism in the 1000s, Gregory the Great/Fall of Rome, Jesus. Many observers say we are living through one of these huge times, which Tickle calls a rummage sale. She then spends the rest of the book illustrating trends in the church throughout the 1900s leading up to today. It is not just that the church is changing, our entire culture is changing. This book is a must read for anyone interesting in how the church is changing and in where it might be going.
Every 500 years something huge happens among the people of God: the Reformation in the 1500s, the Great Schism in the 1000s, Gregory the Great/Fall of Rome, Jesus. Many observers say we are living through one of these huge times, which Tickle calls a rummage sale. She then spends the rest of the book illustrating trends in the church throughout the 1900s leading up to today. It is not just that the church is changing, our entire culture is changing. This book is a must read for anyone interesting in how the church is changing and in where it might be going.
judyward's review against another edition
3.0
Phyllis Tickle, who is the editor of the Religion Department of Publisher's Weekly, has written a thin, but information packed, book dealing with the evolution of religion in America and projecting its future development. Using the thesis that there is a great religious upheaval about every 500 years (we are about 500 years from the Protestant Reformation, 1,000 years from the Great Schism, 1,500 years from Gregory the Great, and 2,000 years from the emergence Christianity), she argues that Christianity is in the midst of another great upheaval and period of growth. Interestingly enough, she also comments that Jewish rabbis have pointed out that within Judiasm there also seems to be a 500 cycle. Five hundred years before the destruction of the Second Temple was the Babylonian Captivity and the Diaspora, and 500 years before that was the end of the Age of Judges and the establishment of the Hewbrew monarchy. This is an interesting examination of the state of Christianity in the United States today and a proposal of where Christians might find themselves in the next 50 to 100 years.
amyfinley829's review against another edition
4.0
A lot of food for thought. What does the next iteration of the Christian church look like? Since religion has changed historically every 500 or so years - it is about time! And so- what comes next?
wordboydave's review against another edition
3.0
Not as interesting or as deeply powerful as I wanted it to be. Tickle—who is a MARVELOUS interview subject if you ever get to hear her speak—lays out the pressures that are transforming the traditional Christian churches, and they're pretty much everything you might have guessed before you picked up the book.
lindyvega's review against another edition
4.0
This was obviously a huge subject to tackle, and I think Phyllis Tickle gave it an admirable effort. Some interesting insights and observations. Also, her writing style is enviable in its complexity and articulation.
coruscate68's review against another edition
4.0
Wonderful observations of Christian history abound in this reading of the living tradition of Christianity. Yet, one can't but notice simplistic assumptions and generalizations along the way. Nevertheless, Phyllis Tickle gives us a very valuable road map for the future. Much appreciation should be given to the treatment to the past while being most concerned with the present and future. Here's a voice, while far from promoting any form of traditionalism, honors and respects Christian roots and the influences which initially formed Christian identity.
mattgroot1980's review
4.0
As someone who has been familiar with the emergent movement in practice since the late 1990s and intellectually/theologically since 2003, I judge such introductory discussions about it less on the content itself than on the presentation. In this respect, Tickle does a very admirable job in tracing a general trajectory for developments in Christian theology and church structure both in history and today. The author would no doubt agree that this is but one way of exploring these themes (indeed it would not be emergent if it claimed to represent THE story itself). Taken in this limited sense, it is a very good book indeed, though I certainly take issue with details here and there. And, as it discusses an ongoing phenomenon, its 2008 publication date also makes it a bit dated already. But, as an introduction to the changes and reactions in contemporary Christianity, for the bewildered, confused and curious alike, it remains a success.