I haven't posted for a while. Maybe it's the carpet/paint/rearrange the house project. Maybe it is the flood of fascinating reading. Maybe it's outlining two historical novels that "call" to be written in full. Whatever, I'm posting today, with a simple review of a contemporary theme.
Just an informal "review", but I do like Phyllis Tickle's book The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why. As the designer and original Religion editor for Publisher's Weekly, she writes gorgeous prose, well-thought and beautifully expressed. Even better, she "gets" it. She understands some of the basic movements going forward.
Her book identifies the four "siblings" of Christianity in America, shows how they are becoming a smaller part of the total scenario of believers and seekers, and how the resulting Christian population relates to, but is different from previous ages.
Stereotyping the approaches as Episcopal, Methodist, Baptist, and Pentecostal, she points to the four bases of authority as practiced by these. There are variants, of course, but these can mark off the four quarters, and other denominations can find kinship in one of the blocks.
Her contention is that about once every 500 years, plus or minus, there is a sea-change. Reformation/Counter-Reformation (+/- 1500), Enlightenment (1000), Dark Ages (500), New Testament Century, Exile (500 BCE), Moses to David (1000 BCE), are markers for major changes among people "of the Book".
What happens when there is a sea-change? Some retreat and become defensive, becoming excellent at all of the denial strategies we recognize in everyone (except in ourselves, of course). Some become as energized as kids at a cup-cake party, eager to embrace and discover. All institutions, which are constantly shifting anyway, shift more rapidly in the environment. Things change!
When we become sensitive to the difference that God is stirring up, we become appreciators of some of the short, pointed sayings that are suddenly relevant. A friend on Facebook posted this one today:
"When faith no longer frees people to ask hard questions, it becomes inhuman and dangerous". - Daniel L. Migliore
Free-to-ask is such a fundamental part of being alive!! And such a fundamental part of Jesus' teaching. This is a superb age to ask the right questions, and pray for the courage to follow along wherever courageous asking takes us. (Someone else to read: Brian D. McLaren - he's easy to find.)
Blessings for the journey!
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