The Great Emergence

 

 

Up until a few months ago I’d never heard of Phyllis Tickle, but a few weeks ago I ordered her latest book The Great Emergence; How Christianity is Changing and Why

 

It arrived from the US on Friday; it’s only a short book (162pages) so I read most of it the following day.

 

Tickle (refreshingly) is not an academic or theologian, but is recognized by CNN, USA TODAY, NEWSWEEK, TIME and The NEW YORK TIMES as one of the most respected authorities on religion in the US, she is also the founding editor of the religion department of Publishers Weekly, she is also a lay Eucharistic minister of the Episcopalian Church and a senior fellow of Cathedral College, so she is well credentialed to make these observations.

 

In the opening pages of the book she makes a timely but also disturbing observation (at least to some!) She says; “every five hundred years or so, the Church cleans out its attic and has a giant rummage sale”

 

She articulates the challenges facing the Church in a way that few others have, she takes us right back into the early days of Christendom and points out with great accuracy starting with Gregory the great in 500AD and in a brief yet comprehensive fashion creates a broad picture of the issues (and what would appear) and unrelated facets in this period of history and shows with some conviction the factors that contributed to the demise of the first “Great” re-formation. This was followed by a similar tectonic shift around 1000AD and of course the Great Reformation of Luther, Calvin and co in 1517.

 

Tickle points out in each instance that the great unrest started in years and in many cases sometimes even centuries before the event was officially recognized, and in may cases as pointed out earlier these co-contributors were not religious in nature, a good example of this was the first printing press by Gothenburg, it started its production within a short time of the famous “Wittenberg Door” and the nailing of the thesis to the same, this reformation owes its so called success in no small way to the arrival of the printing press. This fuelled the state, national and international debate and discussion on a level unprecedented in history.

 

In our own case the end of modernity and the painful dawning of a new era called post-modernism has challenged to the very core all that we hold dear, this in itself has created untold anxiety, fear and uncertainty, we are by nature (not all of us thankfully!) Creatures of habit and the Church more than any other institution has been woefully unprepared for change on any level. Not only do we want things to stay the same, but we will move heaven and earth to make sure that it does, and woe betide anyone who has the temerity to even think of doing this, as one minister once pointed out when taking over a church with a very conservative congregation, ‘how do you move the organ in a church…inch by inch, week by week’

 

The emerging Church has attempted over the last few years to move the church with what would appear to be great haste, and the old warhorses of modernity have had much to say about this, most of it scathing in nature. When looking at the different eras of the church over the last 2000years modernity has brought its own unique challenges, its obsession with black and white absolutes, its manic need to have everything reduced to quantifiable outcomes and then bringing out the old black and white plans to see if everything measures up to the millimeter, this has made things difficult indeed, the old guard in terms of all things theological, has mostly produced Christians that are ‘sentry guards’ or ‘boundary keepers’

 

McLaren has rightly pointed out that this is a conversation not a blue print for the final model. Unfortunately modernity has for far to long turned any conversation into a monologue, wanting to monopolize the end result, conversation brings with it the suggestion of a mutual exchange of ideas, not the old model where the defense of a worn out theology that has long had its day. The rummage sale will always be stressful, when moving house one will always feel that everything is sacred, it is no longer about what to keep but what to let go of, and the reasons (within this context) will more than likely contain elements of co-dependency. To let go is to feel that one will not be caught and so plummet into the depths. Modernity has finally come to the cross roads, it is time to put aside its adolescent angst, and realize that is time to ‘grow up and grow out’ of its obsession with not only a theology that was systematic but a whole lifestyle, the emerging church as an observer over many years is declaring that this is now problematic. Tickle brings two new words to the table and the conversation, “orthonomy” and “theonomy” these words are a good description of what the ‘great emergence’ are endeavoring to do;

 

·        Orthonomy:

 

This is a difficult word to describe; it was used in the Septuagint and the New Testament it is best understood as meaning the employment of aesthetic or harmonic purity as a tool for discerning the truth, this word presents a great challenge for those who are steeped in doctrine and or practice.

 

·        Theonomy

 

It means to say or name the principle that only God can be the source of perfection in action and thought…As is patently clear, the burden of the argument of theonomy is still the principle of sola scriptura, albeit in more modish and culturally attractive clothes.

 

These new words also describe in more comprehensive fashion the new model;

 

The old model looked a little like this, it could be described as ‘the quadrilateral’ this was simple divided into four boxes that looked like this;

 

·        Liturgicals

·        Renewalists

·        Social justice Christians

·        Conservatives

 

 

These four categories are well defined by four square boxes, this model will never lend itself to any sort of mergence, the boundaries are too well defined, within this old model one was forced to guard the boundaries for fear of theological contamination, this in itself and by its very nature created friction, this was and will always be divisive, forcing people into one camp or the other, and one would be challenged when the pressure was on to declare ones ‘colors’ little wonder that we have more than 20,000 denominations always looking for an edge, this model bordered on compulsive-obsessive, like the man who washed his hands dozens of times a day, never wanting to suffer any contamination, and so with this model theological purity at all costs leads one to break away again and again, pride will always seek to express itself in elitist language, will always major on the minors, never wishing to see that as a body of Christ we will always have much more in common that not.

 

The new model looks more like a ‘rose’ with the petals interwoven towards the center, indeed as one gets closer to the center the greater cohesion where each petal compliments and supports the other, the goal of this new model is nothing short of miraculous, since when and where has the body of Christ ever worked in harmony every sought to compliment and support those with different ideas and views. This new model is seeking to create a dynamic where for the first time the boundaries (which have always bordered on the level of autistic in the sense that there has been a repulsion of any and all intimacy and contact) are removed and we are encouraged to embrace for the first time. The real need here is for a fresh understanding a more informed view of the bigger picture. Only the spirit of God is capable of creating this sort of cohesion.