Phyllis Tickle’s newest book is being blogged about all over the place, so I thought I would link to some of my favorite posts and\or comment streams under the posts and then throw out some observations or questions that ran through my mind as I read through the book. I read the book in one sitting and the book is in one of my library boxes on its way to California, so my thoughts are really just the ones that stuck. I will say that the book was fun to read and the observations gave me things to think about while being occupied with the momentous process of packing.
#1The Great Emergence is happening world-wide and is not to be completely or primarily located in the church or even religion. This is important for all those who want the same’ole good’ole, the Great Emergence is happening and we are all a part of it.
#2 The Great Emergence, like other 500 year rummage sales before it, transcends and includes its predecessors. By this I mean that Catholics, Protestants, and other previous newcomers are still around and even the older traditions are part of the Great Emergence, they too will come to discover themselves anew through this period of transitioning and re-traditioning.
#3 The Great Emergence is occasioned by both advances and deformities of the previous 500 year period and those of us who are going ’emerging’ are the products of the last one, products of its advances and deformities. To me this means we need a more integral understanding of the process we are involved in and avoid the temptation as the more postmodern of us to trash everything behind us.
#4 The Great Emergence will include dramatic external change that brings radical newness and intentional purposeful change from within that transforms existing communities.
#5 The Great Emergence will result in church authority structures that transcend (but include) scripture and\or tradition. As an aside, I think this is why the more progressive of us need not fight so much over homosexuality, because when The Great Emergence blooms there will be a radically different anthropology. Maybe instead we could focus on sounding like Christians who are identified by love until then.
#6 The Great Emergence, the book, reveals that much of what we spend time worried about and those we spend time responding to are really part of the backlash. So despite their calling to be our personal Paraclete and theological life coach, we should just let the be and move on.
#7 The Great Emergence being a global transformative moment should send us who have gone ’emerging’ to the other fields of knowledge and spiritual centers of transformation to find friends for the journey or neighbors on the block of our rummage sale.
#8 The Great Emergence gives us a few good questions. Where is our authority? What is a human? How now do you incarnate your God? Is a Mac Book sacred?
Blog Posts: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
This is nothing Phyllis Tickle said, but if you flip her quadrilateral of the four traditions over so the Orthodoxy people are on top and the Orthopraxy people are on bottom then the 4 quadrants coorelate to the 4 quadrants of Integral theory via Ken Wilber. Not sure what to make of it, but while I was boxing my books I thought it was something worth pursuing. Maybe I should ask a futurist who is also a Tickle & Wilber fan what he thinks.
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