Emergence Christianity Hardback

What a fascinating read! Phyllis Tickle tackles Emergence Christianity once again. In this volume, she takes the conversation further, filling in all the details and answering the who, what, where, why, and how of the movement. A page turner, I read through each story with anticipation as I eagerly awaited the next set of connections Phyllis Tickle would make between seemingly unrelated people, movements, faith, and culture. Never in one volume have I seen such a diverse set of Christian movements not only listed but analyzed for their meaning as it related to the bigger picture. Decade by decade, she walks us through the 20th century, tracing the roots of Emergence Christianity. No one gets left behind here: we read about Pentecostalism, house churches, Taize, Vatican II, liberation theology, Orthodox spirituality, the Vineyard, to name a few. She brings her analysis all the way up to the present day, describing the current movements of emergence such as emergent village, neo-monasticism, and new calvinism, and others. Throughout her work Tickle helps make a vast amount of stories intelligible, and she seems to do it effortlessly. As we have come to expect, Tickle has done her homework, and the result is a unique contribution to the conversation about what Christianity has and will become in the Twenty-first century.

The elegance of Phyllis Tickle's writing provides beautiful context for the comprehensiveness of her analysis: she has a bird's-eye view of what's happening to, in, and through a new kind of Christianity. She helps us integrate in our minds what God has already integrated in the world: a way of being Christian that transcends sacred-secular constructs, challenges unearned privilege, and does not refuse light from any quarter. Emergence Christianity lets us into a secret that could do with being shouted from rooftops: we are all one, we need each other, and no matter the stream of Christianity you happen to feel most distance from, there's a gift waiting to be revealed when human beings open themselves to change. If you want to know how the old and the new fit together, look no further.

Tickle (The Great Emergence) has submitted yet another report on the condition of Christianity. The Emergent Church?a still-controversial and hard-to-define phenomenon?is, to Tickle and others, a crossdenominational, postpolitical vision of Christian fellowship and sincerity. All times are times of stress and change, and it is hard not to believe, for each of us, that we are in the midst of a revolution?Tickle certainly makes a convincing case for her conviction that this is a ?great? moment in Christian history. VERDICT If you believe that Christianity is undergoing a great transformation, this is a crucial book; many Christians, liberal and conservative, should be intrigued.