The Emerging Church

I recently read Phyllis Tickle's The Emerging Church.  The book is an interesting, if sociological, look at the major shifts that have happened in Christianity over the past 500 years, and why those shifts happen.

Tickle detailed some of the historical events that lead up to the Great Reformation (Martin Luther, John Calvin, etc.) which was helpful to start thinking about why Protestants have clung to some things over the past 500 years, as well as the importance of reason and logic in Western Christianity up until the past sixty years or so.  

The last third of the book or so is dedicated to tracking the trends in current events leading up to the transformations Christianity has gone through over the past thirty years, and is going through right now.  The term that she employs (and has come to be employed by many participants involved in this movement) is "Emerging Church."  This church is one that transcends denomination in hopes of returning to a more ecumenical group that is gathered around love of God and love of neighbor.

Tickle's book was helpful because it gave me some sociological reasons behind trends that I have noticed in some of the other books that I've read.  Seeing how World War II impacted the rise in feminism in the workplace, which then influenced women's roles in worship was a perspective that I held vaguely, but without any real understanding of how they were all connected.

Tickle was an excellent way to kick of my internship reading, because it opens to doors to a variety of authors within the "Emerging Church" community that I have been wanting to ready such as Brian McLaren, Bryan Berghoef, Nadia Bolz-Weber, and Peter Rollins, among others.   Her sociological style is an excellent foundation for understanding where the other authors are coming from when they put forth their theological ideas.

My only complaint with Tickle's book was that, at points, I got bogged down in the historical events leading up to the transformations she described.  It felt like I was working through a historical book rather than the theological.  To be fair, though, I started the book expecting a theological work and then received a historical-sociological on.

I think that people who are interested in seeing where the church has come from and what it is going through right now would benefit from reading this book.  Her easy to read style of writing made it accessible to everyone, even if they were not familiar with some of the theological or religious language that is often thrown around.