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Tag: Great emergence

A Decade Later: Where is the Great Emergence Now?

In a previous blog, I introduced two key images from Phyllis Tickle’s The Great Emergence. In this blog, I engage the book critically and reflect on how its ideas are standing the test of time. Twelve years since the books’ publication, to what extent they continue to shed light in our current moment and to what extent they need adjusting? It is unfortunate that Phyllis Tickle is no longer with us to engage in dialogue. May she rest in peace with her savior. Yet, I pay homage to her legacy by engaging with it faithfully.

Reformation, Counter-Reformation And Technology

The Great Emergence claims that Christianity is undergoing a reformation. Is that really true? To answer this question we must first better understand our historical moment. That is, screen technologies have enabled not just the fast dissemination of information but an unprecedented democratization of truth. Let me explain. We live in a world where competing views of the world can co-exist without being settled by an external authoritative force. There is no-longer one source of truth legitimized by political or financial power. Instead, in a world of small screens, individuals are custom-making their reality by the minute.

This development is rather complex, one that would require multiple blogs to fully explain. Yet, the point I am trying to make is that people with diametrically opposing views can be physically side-by-side while living in different worlds. Even as the same historical events touch them, their framework of reference is so different that they might as well be living in alternative realities. That is, this is not just about seeing things differently but fundamentally experiencing them differently.

What that means is that we have no longer one historical moment but a multiplicity of parallel narratives. Hence, one can’t no longer simply state that the church is undergoing a process of Reformation. Instead, what you have are currents of reform and preservation living parallel and at times colliding against each other. In short, one can speak of both a Reformation and a Counter-Reformation happening side by side within the Christian community in our time.

The Swirling Center and Secularization

In a previous blog, I explored the book’s metaphor of a swirling center to explain what was happening in North American Christianity. The Great Emergence spoke of a center in which people were mixing different elements of the diverse segments of the faith. Yet, this metaphor is limited in that it suggests a mixing of elements internal to Christianity only. It does not account for when Christian groups are going outside the household to find inspiration.

For example, churches that now offer yoga in their premises, a recent increased interest in mindfulness among mainline churches and the incorporation of psychological knowledge and techniques into evangelical counseling ministries. It also fails to account for the integration of science and theology and current reflection on technology. These are all examples where Christian groups are interacting with outside agents in search of wisdom.

I would characterize this mixing with outside elements as part of the irresistible pull of secularism on religious communities of all faiths. When saying secularism, I do not mean anti-religious per se but instead as outside of traditional religious bounds. The term is there to describe human activities that occur external to religious frameworks. In that, and here is an important point, it does not mean anti-Christian necessarily. In other words, forces of secularization are not destroying the Christian message but forcing it to be re-framed in new terms. I will speak more about that in future blogs.

The Dismantling of Organized Religion

Can we even speak today of an emerging Christianity? This may strike as a paradoxical statement given that I have devoted the last four blogs to the this phenomenon. But the question is less about recognizing the inevitable shifts in Christianity and more about whether what is emerging is Christianity at all. Is this an emergence of new Christianity or a whole different thing altogether?

In the previous paragraph I spoke of secularism not destroying but re-shaping Christianity. Yet, could it be that it is changing it to such an extent where it can no longer be a religion or faith as originally idealized? To be honest, I don’t really know the answer to this question. Instead, what I see this as an open question to which the answer is unfolding each day. The future of Christianity will hinge upon how we answer it.

Here is where I move on to another seminal work on this topic. Namely, Diana Buttler Bass book Christianity After Religion. If Phyllis Tickle framed well the crisis, Diana Butler Bass offers glimpses of where it is going. She recognizes that the long term effects of secularization represents a wholesale shift of Christianity from religion to spirituality. How is that happening? That is what I would like to explore in the next blogs.

The Great Emergence: How Decay Precedes Renewal

In previous blogs, I discussed compelling traits of an emerging Christianity and illustrated how these traits were showing up in the global church through an example in Brazil. In this blog, I describe and engage with key ideas from Philis Tickle’s book, The Great Emergence. One cannot speak of emerging Christianity without engaging with this seminal work. The Great Emergence, published in 2008, lays an illuminating historical framework to what we now are calling emerging Christianity.

Why is this book so influential on this topic? We like stories that connect the dots and show how the past correlates to the present, providing directions of where the future may go. Tickle does that well by convincingly showing how Christianity in North America is experiencing nothing short of a reformation. Furthermore, through compelling images and well-researched trends, the book gifted us with language to describe the ongoing dialogue over the essence of the Christian faith in North American soil. In short, It helps clarify this tumultuous time we are living in.

Undergoing a Rummage sales

Tickle argues that every 500 years, the Christian church goes through a process of renewal. She describes it as a “rummage sales” where the community scans the attic to get rid of items no longer needed. In my neck of the woods, this is often called a “garage sale.” The idea is that the institution goes through a process of reevaluating its beliefs, doctrines and practices. For example, in the last “rummage sales” Martin Luther and others questioned the validity of selling indulgences. Hence, this practice was one of these items “sold,” giving way to new ideas and practices for relating with the divine.

Furthermore, by placing our historical moment alongside these great shifts in he church, she is also arguing that the process has been ongoing for at last 200 years. That is, considering a larger historical context, she identifies important trends that lead us to our current predicament. It is not like all of a sudden a group of Christians decided to complain about the church’s shortcomings. Instead, she sees the process as part of an enduring tradition of renewal in the church.

For example, one of the first blows to the authority of Scripture was the American Civil War over the issue of slavery. When Christians were willing to take arms against each other over an issue that the Bible was ambiguous on, that eroded the overall trust in its authority. This painful historical experience invited questions many dared not ask before.

She also points to the AA (Alcoholic Anonymous) 12-steps program as a marker for the shifting from religion to spirituality. By allowing its adherents to pray to a “higher power of their own choosing,” AA introduced language for a generic faith untethered from religious doctrine. One no longer needed to belief in a God but only acknowledge the existence of a larger entity outside one-self. This further deepened the democratization of belief in the American religious market. The group essentially de-coupled the spiritual parts of Christianity from its religious roots.

Through multiple examples, The Great Emergence describes a process in which Americans exchanged traditional Christian beliefs and practices for new alternatives. In her view, the Pre-modern framework of the biblical faith was ill-equipped to answer questions arising from a fast modernizing world. As this inadequacy amplified through technological and scientific advances, Americans looked to find meaning from other sources.

The Swirling Center

To me, the most compelling portion of The Great Emergence is where she speaks of a swirling center. She uses it as a metaphor to explain how this emerging Christianity came about in the American religious context. Let me set up the metaphor first to better explain how it works. Tickle divides the many Christian denominations into a quadrilateral of four groups: Liturgicals, Social Justice Christians, Renewalists and Conservatives.

For those unfamiliar with these terms, let me describe what they mean. Liturgicals are Mainline Protestants (Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists) and Catholics whose churches emphasize formal worship with communion every week, recited prayers and hymnbooks. Social Justice Christians, often found in mainline churches, tend to be politically progressive emphasizing service and activism over religious rituals.

Renewalists are the fastest growing segment of the global church often associated with the Pentecostal movement. They tend to emphasize experience (whether through prayer, music and the belief in miracles) over doctrine and rituals. Conservatives is the dominant group within the Evangelical fold who emphasize evangelism and often align with right-wing political positions.

Proceeding further, she proposes a forming center where communities borrow from other quadrants in order to transform their own practices as shown in the picture below:

Taken from pg 136 of The Great Emergence

That is where you have evangelical (Conservative) churches getting into social justice issues; Liturgicals holding healing services (inspired by Renewalists); Conservative Evangelicals looking for meaning in the spiritual disciplines (inspired by Liturgicals); Renewalists aligning themselves closely with right-wing political positions (inspired by Conservatives). These are just a few examples that illustrate this swirling center where communities interact with the different quadrants. They do that in order to fill the gaps that their quadrants’ dominant tradition left behind.

The swirling center is prevalent in non-denominational congregations that, by default, draw people that grew up in different quadrants. As Renewalists, Conservatives, Liturgicals and Social Justice Christians join informal networks and alliances, they naturally learn from each other building new combinations of practices. The result is an overall blending of traditions which often characterizes the emerging church.

Conclusion

Indisputably, Christianity is undergoing profound change in the North American continent. However, the overwhelming sentiment towards these developments among the faithful is one of grief over what is being lost. Phylis Tickle’s argument that we are experiencing reformation instills hope. What is happening is not simply decay but death before resurrection. The rummage sales is here to throw out unnecessary artifacts from tradition so Christians can experience God through new pathways. The turmoil is not just about deconstruction but a first step in reconstruction.

Furthermore, Tickle also suggests that this reformation is bringing Christians together. The swirling center is facilitating a cross pollination never seen before in history. The sectarianism inherited from the Reformation 500 years ago is being corrected. Innovation is not coming from any particular corner of the Christian household but in the center where they all meet. Hence, she suggests that underneath all this turmoil lies the hand of a transformative God longing to bring his children together.