I have not read the book, but do find Dyer's thesis intriguing: 500 years ago the church experienced the Reformation and the beginning of the Protestant Church.
500 years before that was The Great Schism, which split the state church of the Roman Empire into Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) branches. Later they would be known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively.
500 years prior was the Council of Chalcedon and the Fall of Rome. And 500 years earlier than that, was the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
It should be noted that this is a Judeo-Christian phenomenon, as the Fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity came 500 years before Christ, ending the 1st Temple era and ushering in the 2nd. And 500 years prior to that was the United Monarchy of Israel.
I certainly see the pattern, and notice that major events have occurred regularly for the past 2500 years, but I'm not sure I would call them all "rummage sales." So what do you think? Are we on the cusp of another radical shift in the Church?
7 comments:
I read Tickle's book and saw her speak... I completely disagree with her conclusion: that the emergent church is this 'rummage sale' or historical movement.
I could the big 5-0-0 being secularism, the downfall of contemporary evangelicalism and the continual surge of secularism in the Christian worldview. The movements this will create, in my opinion, have yet to be truly scene. The 'post-liberal' emergent movement has already lost steam, thus I think Tickle was actually wrong.
I wouldn't be shocked if the big deal already happened: the enlightenment. Maybe we're recovering from that now?
What's difficult to know is where these movements will come from. The seminaries? academia? the evangelizing trenches of China or Africa? It's hard to say... but any western movement will be different than others, that I know.
In the end, there are interesting things happening everywhere... academia has really found some interesting theological guts recently... we'll see how long it takes to get that to churches though.
I am interested in the growth of the Pentecostal denom. in places like South America and China.
The experiencial/participatory nature of the church is on the rise in places like that.
They certainly lack the formal academia that we see in the west but are growing at rapid rates.
In Tickle's video trailer for the book she talks about characteristics of the Great Emergence, one being a doing away with the exclusivity of Christianity.
LG: Did she expand on that thought? Did she emphasize the cosmic Christ like Bell in Love Wins?
How about the simple fact of what technology is doing to the global dialogue, communication and even politics (think Egypt)? That could be a HUGE shift. Post-Modernism is already a passe term in the ivory tower and the emergent church is, I'm guessing, more like labeling each generation as they pass through (ie: boomers, Gen X and on). A mentor to me, Dr. Sharon Daloz Parks of Harvard and more recently the Whidbey Institute, in a book on her research, "Common Fire", shares that we are living in a "cusp time" in history and must learn from Other how to live for a Common Good as our world becomes smaller and smaller. She studies how we develop compassion individually and what hope this can bring to our world in this time. Read "Common Fire" if you can...
Yeah, I was surprised someone is even talking about "the west" as if the western world is the sole driving force of culture and demanding of our attention.
The optimism of the book and its subjects vs. the pessimism of mass media sounds very intriguing. Especially the challenge to be citizens instead of consumers.
Thanks Tami!
if a radical shift will happen in the church I think it'll be a deconstruction shift. I think it will look like christianity collapsing - as churches decline in numbers - but really it will be people rising up as Christians outside of standard church walls. A bit more guerilla style.
Interesting Charlie...from the trailer for Tickle's book, it sounded like she would agree: Post-denom, post-protestant - a group not bound by walls, who use things like the web for community.
I take comfort in thinking that if a shift on par with those of the past is occurring, the current expressions will still exist, but love the idea of God working in people and places and ways I would not anticipate.
BG-
The 'cosmic christ' wasn't talked about with Tickle the same way Rob Bell was. Bell isn't as much as an existentialist as she believes the emergence is/will be.
From what I recall, they were heading in the same place... but with different language for sure. I suspect the book would fit well in what she expected the theological paradigm to be.
Various forms of universalism have been mentioned before in other writings of hers, and obviously, the emergent church.
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