A Node in the Web of the Emerging Church

Available Now: "The Great Emergence" by Phyllis Tickle

Posted Sep 18, 10:27 PM | 0 comments | by Editor | Link

By Tony Jones, re-posted from the Emergent/C email newsletter:

Emergent Village has three ongoing publishing partnerships. In partnership with Baker Books, we are thrilled to announce the release of The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why by Phyllis Tickle.

Phyllis is a world-renowned expert on the American religious landscape and a best-selling author. She’s also a long-time friend of Emergent Village. This book promises to be a watershed in the broader understanding of emergence in American Christianity. And Emergent Village is also thrilled to announce The Great Emergence National Event, December 5-6, in Memphis, Tennessee.

The following review is by David Crumm. For more than 30 years, David has been a journalist working mainly for large newspapers, reporting on the importance of religion in our world. He has reported mainly from his home base in Michigan, but has worked from Europe, the Middle East and Asia on occasion. In late 2007, David retired from Gannett newspapers to found ReadTheSpirit, a new kind of multimedia publishing house and online magazine:

If you know the name “Phyllis Tickle,” then you probably already own one or more of her books. You may own copies of her guides to recovering the tradition of fixed-hour prayer, such as Christmastide: Prayers for Advent Through Epiphany from The Divine Hours or The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime. You may be a fan of her Prayer Is a Place or may have studied The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord with Reflections with a small group.

So, why buy another Tickle book?

The answer is that this short volume is conceived as really a summation and introduction to the vast sweep of Phyllis’ work over the past decade. You’ll find here her concise overview of 500-year cycles of religious change. You’ll find here her system for sorting out the impact of various religious movements—and the convergence of movements back toward a spiritual core in Christianity.

For a small book, though, this text deals with very big issues. While primarily a Christian book, there are important insights here for anyone interested in changing global culture and values.

This book is custom-made for small-group study.

For an extended interview that David conducted with Phyllis about the book, visit his site.

And please consider joining Phyllis and friends at The Great Emergence National Event in December.

Tony Jones is the national coordinator for Emergent Village. He is the author of a number of books, including The New Christians.