So sad to learn of the death of Phyllis Tickle earlier this week, on September 22, 2015, Dr. Tickle was 81. Dr. Tickle was a teacher, professor, academic dean, and editor, and a tsar in the Christian publishing world. She was on the the quest for spiritual practice, genuinely open to the new work of the Divine, and a wise translator of emergence Christianity.
“Religion, whether we like it or not, is intimately tied to the culture in which it exists. One can argue—with only varying degrees of success, though—that private faith can exist independent of its cultural surround. When, however, two or three faith-filled believers come together, a religion—possibly more of a nascent or proto-religion—is formed. Once formed, it can never be separated entirely from its context. Just as surely as one of the functions of religion is to inform, counsel, and temper the society in which it exists, just so surely is every religion informed and colored by its hosting society. Even a religion’s very articulation of itself takes on the cadences, metaphors, and delivery systems of the culture that it is in the business of informing. Thus, when we look at these semi-millennial tsunamis of ours, we as Christians must be mindful of the fact that the religious changes effected during each of them were only one part of what was being effected, and that all the other contemporaneous political, social, intellectual, and economic changes were intimately entwined with the changes in religion and religious thought.”
Phyllis Tickle, Emergence Christianity: What It Is, Where It Is Going, and Why It Matters
Her writing, speaking and affinity for the emerging church made a huge impact on me… probably bigger than I can even appreciate in this moment. Dr. Tickle’s three volume series The Divine Hours, makes accessible the ancient practice of the offices of daily prayer; but for me it was her book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why, that was a game changer. Well, that and her friendship with the emergent church movement and her willingness to so generously lend her voice, presence, and wisdom to the conversation and friendship of this movement that I so aware of as I feel my way through her death. I’m shoot she even endorsed one of my books!
“About every five hundred years the Church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale. And, he goes on to say, we are living in and through one of those five-hundred-year sales.”
Phyllis A. Tickle, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why
So grateful for Phyllis Tickle’s life and leadership.
Peace, dwight
