Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 166:664 (Oct 2009)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Matthew S. DeMoss

BibSac 166:664 (Oct 2009) p. 487

Book Reviews

By The Faculty of Dallas Theological Seminary

Matthew S. DeMoss

Editor

The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why. By Phyllis Tickle. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008. 172 pp. $17.99.

Tickle is the founding editor of the religion department of Publishers Weekly and a recognized expert on religion in America. In this book she evaluates the current state of Christianity in America and makes predictions about its future. Her focus is clearly defined: “We are looking at emergent and emerging Christianity from the North American, and primarily the United States, perspective. Yet emergent Christianity in this country does not exist in isolation, either geographically or culturally” (p. 120).

Following the metaphor proposed by Anglican Bishop Mark Dyer, Tickle observes that approximately every five hundred years the church holds a giant rummage sale. In short at about half-millennium intervals “the empowered structures of institutional Christianity, whatever they may be at that time, become an intolerable carapace that must be shattered in order that renewal and new growth may occur” (p. 16). Counting back from the twenty-first century in five-hundred-year intervals, she calls attention to the Great Reformation (sixteenth century), the Great Schism (eleventh century), Gregory the Great and monasticism (sixth century), and the Great Transformation (at the time of Jesus). Her designation for the most recent change is “The Great Emergence.” As she uses it, “Emergence” is a broader designation than the “emerging/emergent” conversation, although, of course, the two cannot be separated.

In the bulk of the book Tickle presents a compelling case for transformations in American Christianity during the twentieth century as a result of the impact of Charles Darwin and Michael Faraday, the advent of radio and television, Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth, Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, the quest(s) for the historical Jesus, Pentecostalism, automobiles and the interstate highway system, Karl Marx and materialism, Alcoholics Anonymous, Buddhism, recreational drug usage, Rosie the Riveter and the reconfiguration of the family, the first and second Vatican councils, the loss of scriptural authority, and others. Her observations and the connections she draws between these factors make for a fascinating story. Any such treatment in a book of this size is necessarily brief and shallow, but Tickle’s sketch of the twentieth century illustrates the confluence of multiple influences within a relatively short

BibSac 166:664 (Oct 2009) p. 488

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