Phyllis Tickle Collection (2 vols.)

Phyllis Tickle offers a creative and provocative overview of multiple social and cultural changes in our era, their relation to previous major paradigm shifts, and their particular impact on North American Christianity. This is an immensely important contribution to the current conversation about new and emerging forms of Christianity in a postmodern environment—and a delight to read!

—Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop and primate, The Episcopal Church

It is too easy to call the emerging movement a new reformation. Why? Find parallels to the sixteenth century, and you’ve got it. It is just as easy to debunk such a theory. Why? Find absences to the Reformation, and the parallel breaks down. That is why the emerging movement has to be explained as its own thing. Phyllis Tickle does just that. One thing I’ve learned to appreciate as I’ve grown older is big theories—and that is what Phyllis gives us. Within a few pages you’ll be wondering if she’s onto something. If she is, then we’re in the eye of a storm.

—Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University

The Great Emergence offers a sweeping overview of church history and locates us in a moment of great opportunity and challenge. To some, this analysis will come as a rude awakening, and to others, as a dream coming true. My hunch is that this will be one of the most important books of the year, and will shape the conversation among a wide range of Christians for years to come.

—Brian McLaren, activist, author, and speaker

North American Christianity is presently undergoing a change every bit as radical as the Protestant Reformation, possibly even as monumental as its natal break with Judaism. And it’s right on schedule. Tickle . . . observes that Christianity is holding its semi-millennial rummage sale of ideas. With an elegance of argument and economy of description, Tickle escorts readers through the centuries of church history leading to this moment and persuasively charts the character of and possibilities for the emerging church. Don’t let this book’s brevity fool you. It is packed with keen insights about what this ‘great emergence’ is, how it came to be, and where it may be headed. Tickle issues a clear call to acknowledge the inevitability of change, discern the church’s new shape, and participate responsibly in the transformation. . . . This is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the face and future of Christianity.

—Publishers Weekly

Phyllis Tickle is in a unique position by reason of experience, education, and personal courage to say things that many cannot say—or cannot see. Here she does it very well—once again. Christianity is emerging with or without Phyllis Tickle, but she is sure helping the rest of us to emerge along with it!

—Richard Rohr, founder, Center for Action and Contemplation

Finally someone has put the emergence conversation in the wider historical context it deserves—showing how what is now emerging owes so much to contributors over the last century, from Walter Raushenbusch to Johann Baptist Metz, from Dorothy Day to Mary and Gordon Cosby, from Azusa Street to Taizé and Iona to Buenos Aires. Phyllis Tickle gets it right and conveys it beautifully, so more and more readers can be a part of it . . . with a clearer understanding of what ‘it’ is!

—Brian McLaren, activist, author, and speaker

What a fascinating read! 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. 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.

—Ryan Bolger, associate professor of church in contemporary culture, Fuller Theological Seminary

Take a heart practiced in faith and trust in God. Add the mind of a finely trained historian and the eye of a keen observer of religion. Add gifted writing, unfailing bluntness, and deep wisdom, and you get Phyllis Tickle. These pages offer you nothing less than the future of the church, chronicled by an author who welcomes this ‘great emergence’ without an ounce of fear. It’s a story you can’t afford to miss.

—Philip Clayton, dean, Claremont School of Theology