Reflections on The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle

Chapter 1

In this chapter Tickle explains what the "Great Emergence" is and shows how every 500 years institutionalized Christianity is shattered and renewal and new growth take place. When this happens a new living form of the faith comes into being and the older tradition is revitalized. At the same time the faith spreads into new geographic and demographic areas.

Chapter 2

This chapter shows how religion is a social construct using the analogy of the cable. The waterproof casing is the shared story/history of the community. The mesh sleeve of the cable is the common imagination or the community's view of how the world works or the way things are supposed to be. Inside the waterproof casing are the three strands of spirituality, morality, and corporeality. Spirituality is the experiences and values internal to individuals or groups of individuals in the community. Morality is the externalization or application of these values and corporeality is the physical and overt evidence of a group's existence. When the waterproof casing of a community's shared story and the mesh sleeve of its common imagination are damaged or called into question then the community takes each of the individual strands and changes them in order to adjust them to the new reality.

Chapter 3

This chapter focuses on the Great Reformation and compares it to the Great Emergence. In many ways they are similar as people in that time were attempting to answer the question of authority. It was also a time in which the shared story and common imagination of the church were shaken up by several new discoveries. Copernican theory showed that the earth was not the center of the solar system and this along with Columbus' discovery of the New World challenged the authority of the church. These things along with the rise of the nation state, capitalism, the middle class, and the use of the printing press were factors which led to The Great Reformation and also the Counter or Catholic Reformation. Both of these are examples of a new vital form of the faith coming into being, the old tradition being revitalized and the faith being spread to new geographic and demographic areas.

Chapter 4

New discoveries in the fields of biology, physics, and psychology led to the Great Emergence. The fields of biology and physics were radically altered by Charles Darwin and Michael Faraday. As a result the authority of sola scriptura was challenged and the reaction against biblical criticism, evolution, and liberal theology gave birth to the fundamentalist movement. Here Tickle describes the Great Emergence as an attempt to hold in tension the key tenets of evangelicalism and the new theologically diverse and pluralistic culture. Another factor that led to the Great Emergence is Joseph Campbell's Power of Myth television broadcast which challenged Christian exclusivity and particularity. In a way television and now the internet have become the new Gutenberg press for the Great Emergence. Because of the developments in biology, physics, and psychology the two questions important to the Great Emergence are 1) What is human consciousness and/or the consciousness of the human? 2) What is the relation of all religions to one another or how can we live as faithful adherents of one religion in a world of many religions?

Chapter 5

Here Tickle describes the external culture of the Great Emergence. The Heisenberg principle of uncertainty was based on Einstein's special theory of relativity and in turn influenced literary deconstruction. Literary deconstruction claimed that there is no absolute truth and challenges the authority of the Bible as the ultimate authority. Pentecostalism and African American particapatory styles of worship impact North American Christianity. The egalitarianism and experience based authority also leave their mark on the face of North American Christianity. The automobile takes the family away from Grandma and the nuclear family disintegrates and at the same time Biblical literacy increases. Alcoholics Anonymous, The Immigration act, and the Drug age pave the way for a new spirituality. Much of the Great Emergence's thinking is rooted in the two Vatican Councils of 1869 and 1962. Information has replaced cash as the new basis of power. The North American Great Emergence as fresh expression of Christianity is primarily a conversation.

Chapter 6

North American Christianity can divided into four groups: liturgicals, social justice, renewalists, and conservatives. There categories cross denominational lines partly because of the "watercooler" theology of the Great Emergence. These denominational lines have blended and eroded divisions. Divisions still exist and the most significant is between believing and behaving. The liturgical and social justice christains would be in the behaving category while the conservatives and renewalists are in the believing category. All these different groups are gathering towards a center and being blended together to form a new expression of Christianity. Tickle says the reacting Christians are the Great Emergence's ballast and this ballast is needed in order to keep the fresh expression grounded. She predicts that sixty percent of practicing Christians will be emergent or some clear variant thereof. There will also be Traditionalists who stick with the old faith and act in the same way as the Catholic/Counter Reformation, Re-traditionalists who refurbish their inherited church to make it more like it was originally, Progressives will remodel the faith and remove barriers in order to engage postmodernity, the Hyphenated Christians nearest to the Emerging center will use material from their inherited church but also build something new with this old material.

Chapter 7

The biggest question facing the Great Emergence is "Where now is the authority?" This question has divided the Great Emergence into two camps of orthonomy and theonomy. Orthonomy is the principle of using correct or harmonious beauty as a tool for discerning the truth. Theonomy is the principle that God can only be the source of perfect action and thought and interpreting the meaning of the Bible as the way to discern truth. The Great Emergence sees authority as networked among believers and in this way is a conversation. This way of thinking finds its origins in the Quaker movement and more recently in John Wimber's centered set theory. This centered set theory has been articulated by Great Emergence leaders as "belong-behave-believe". The Great Emergence also relies heavily on narrative versus metanarrative and this will lead into a new understanding of "the self" which is much different than the Hellenized Greek way of understanding "the self" and more Jewish in perspective. As the Great Emergence rewrites theology the Roman and Protestant communions will have to readjust themselves accordingly.