Wednesday Wonder
I recently attended the Convocation of Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis and our speaker lineup included voices of note: The Journalist/Editor, Phyllis Tickle and Church Historian/Commentator on the Contemporary Church Scene, Diana Butler Bass. These two often co-address conferences together because their work is both complimentary and different.
Let us begin with Tickle and her most recent book, The Great Emergence (Baker Books, 2008). We’ll save Bass for next week.
As Tickle takes the long view, centuries of history and time, certain patterns emerge in not only church life, but in the larger cultural life that enfolds it. What appears are very large cycles, repeating transformations at predictable intervals. About every 500 years, says Tickle, the church goes through an enormous rummage sale. At that time – a time of great confusion and uncertain change – some things endure as continuity, other things are jettisoned, and still others are refitted for a new time and context. What comes out on the other side is a new form of Christian community and human community. I would add that anew form of eco-community also emerges, the way the natural world is positioned.
As we think of the fall of the Roman Empire in 500, the great divide of Christian West from East in 1000, and then the Great Reformation in 1500, it is not hard to see. Of course many factors and influences of every kind are at work – political, social, economic, religious – and all contribute to the huge mega-shifts. These gigantic transformations are preceded by a hundred years of rising pressure and followed by another hundred years of aftershocks until settling into some kind of new normal.
That takes us to the present and our own time of great emergence. It is not hard to see. The culture and the church within it have been careening through a tunnel with an uncertain exit ahead. Though we cannot name all the changes taking place, nor describe the end result, our job is to navigate without knowing, with faith and grace, allowing resurrection to come out of death.
At the minimum we observe a changing importance assigned to religious life in society, an eroding of institutional church forms, and multiplying new forms of spiritual life. Many expected norms are lost as a part of the transition. And grief and loss are our fellow passengers along the way.
The good news is that inevitably, historically, the aftermath of these great shifts are filled with vast amounts of spirit and energy. It is as though the building energy is allowed to manifest itself anew and with power. These times have been followed by enormous expansions of spiritual life. Though I see regenerations taking place in historical moments other than the 500 year markers, I do see these mega patterns as well. From my tiny spot in time and space I also believe that we have already entered the tunnel and are well into it. Now we see through a darkened glass, but then we shall see face to face…
This all means that we will be posing many questions and searching for their answers. Questions such as:
On what do we base our understanding of God and God’s man, Jesus?
How do we read ancient witnesses found in scripture and how does it edify us?
What claims our attention and response as never before?
What abides though all else has changed?
How do we understand the human creature in a time of wildly changing technology and even pharmacology?
For certain, we will be changed in this tsunami. Our world view is shifting and will shift. In our present world in which 70 million people have some kind of worship online, we will begin to think differently about the nature of a spiritual community, its reach, limits and boundaries.
What a privilege to be alive in such a moment! Think of the persons who lived one hundred years from 1900 to 2000. Imagine the new world that was born. Imagine the one that shall be. Imagine all the unexpected things God shall yet create!
