Emergence Christianity – What It Is, Where It Came From, Why It Matters with Phyllis Tickle

Watch the webinar recording.

Our discussion will begin with a brief overview of the historical context within which we 21st century Christians are trying to do and be Church today. That discussion will immediately introduce us to the Great Emergence and to the Emergence Christianity that is arising out from, and as a result of, it. We will spend some time talking about what exactly we mean by the words “Emergence Christianity,” where as a phenomenon it is occurring, and why.

From there, we will attempt to summarize briefly, but usefully, the mind-set, theology, ecclesiology, and concerns that inform Emergence. We will conclude our time by looking at some of the implications of all of this for us as contemporary,  latinized Christians, whether we have chosen to worship in, and attach ourselves to, fresh expressions of  Church or Inherited Church, Emergence Christianity or denominational Protestantism, hierarchical Roman Catholicism, synodical Anglicanism, or historic Orthodoxy.

PHYLLIS TICKLE, founding editor of the Religion Department of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, the international journal of the book industry, is frequently quoted in print sources like USA TODAY, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NY TIMES as well as in electronic media like PBS, NPR, THE HALLMARK CHANNEL, and innumerable blogs and web sites.  Tickle is an authority on religion in America and a much sought after lecturer on the subject.

In addition to lectures and numerous essays, articles, and interviews, Tickle is the author of over two dozen books in religion and spirituality, most recently The Great Emergence, How Christianity is Changing and Why and The Words of Jesus, A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord.

Tickle,who was with PUBLISHERS WEEKLY until her retirement in 2004, began her career as a college teacher and, for almost ten years, served as academic dean to the Memphis College of Art before entering full time into writing and publishing. In September 1996 she received the Mays Award, one of the book industry’s most prestigious awards for lifetime achievement in writing and publishing, and specifically in recognition of her work in gaining mainstream media coverage of religion publishing. In 2007 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Christy Awards “In gratitude for a lifetime as an advocate for fiction written to the glory of God.”  In 2004, she received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the Berkeley School of Divinity at Yale University. In 2009 she received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from North Park University.

Tickle is a founding member of The Canterbury Roundtable, and serves now, as she has in the past, on a number of advisory and corporate boards. A lay eucharistic minister and lector in the Episcopal Church, she is the mother of seven children and, with her physician-husband, makes her home on a small farm in Lucy, Tennessee.