Great Emergence
How Christianity is Changing and Why

(Boy, I hate it when GoodReads swallows my review when I go to save it ...) "The Great Emergence" is a somewhat interesting but ultimately too-shallow book that sets out to tackle epic themes of religious history and predict where modern Christiantiy is going, and instead asserts a somewhat dubious h......more

Although the subtitle of this latest book by Phyllis Tickle is "How Christianity is Changing and Why," the book is about so much more. The book's thesis is that the western Church is going through an upheaval and rearrangement, the likes of which have not been seen for 500 years. Even more surprising......more

I have read this book a few times over the years. Each time I read it, I cringe more and more about how Bush era it is--for a book about the future it is very rooted in that present--and how Tickle moves too quickly or cartoonishly through certain parts of history. As I grow as a historian, I find i......more

Tickle's thesis is that every 500 years the Church goes through a major transition -- such as the Reformation--and that we are going through such a time now when "the Church cleans out its attic and has a giant rummage sale." She calls this the Great Emergence. The most helpful part of the book is h......more

Wherever she is, Phyllis Tickle is the smartest person in the room. She has absolutely shaped any understanding of the Christian emergence movement. And when she describes, or one collects, her ideas about the history and future of the church, it could not be more persuasive and impressive. This par......more