Please note: February’s selection,
Here if you need me, by Kate Braestrup
How Christianity is changing, and why. This could have been a sub-title for Phyllis Tickle’s book, The Great Emergence.
As our moderator, Tim, explained, the author’s goal is to get us to think about our role as individuals. The point of the book is to stimulate thought and discussion. Tickle gives us chunks of history in order to understand what’s going on in our own hinge time. “Hinge time” refers to the 500 year cycles at which point Christianity is transformed – each time. And, she says, this has been going on from the beginning of Christianity. The other Abrahamic faiths apparently have their own 500 year cycles as well, but Tickle’s focus is Christianity.
Thora was thrilled to report that this was probably her favorite book club book so far, and that it was a very healing book for her. Her grown children get their religion from the Internet or TV, and now she understands the bigger picture of how and why this is happening.
Linda B especially enjoyed reading about the historic period from 1820-1910.
Colleen hadn’t known about the Chinese immigration brought on by building the Trans-Continental Railroad.
Claire and Sandi were keenly interested in the discussion about the demise of sola scriptura (the Protestant insistence that Scriptures, not priests, be the sole authority; also the insistence on the priesthood of all believers). Claire found a connection between establishing the five pillars of fundamentalism and the publishing of Science and Health.
Carol could relate to the section on “Grandma in the rearview mirror.” The advent of the auto soon replaced the tradition of gathering around Grandma’s dinner table for Sunday discussions. The dialog that used to be family-centered at Grandma’s is now going on all across the world with total strangers.
Bob felt Tickle analyzed Christianity’s transformation in an interesting way.
Rindy wondered how communication is linked with other changes going on all across the board.
Tim pointed out the folk wisdom (p, 90) One always picks up a bit of whatever it is that one opposes simply by virtue of wrestling with it. As people fight against one or another position, working through the emergence, the result is always a blending rather than a complete exclusion.
Barb mentioned the movie, “I Am.” She feels the movie illustrates that mammoth thought changes are going on. This is an emergence not of religion only. All of our institutions will be changing rapidly. Barb also feels that yes, every time Christianity is questioned, something good comes of it. We emerge stronger because of the questioning.
I seriously need to read this book. Thanks for sharing this.
I thought the discussion was fascinating – learned a lot, though I don’t even own the book, hadn’t read it! I thought the final little “testimony” was so touching – so honest & humble of the gal to even mention it, and to thank the other woman for teaching her a precious lesson.
Took notes to give me ideas to remember, as I’m sure I will not have time to read this. Just hoping maybe to get to the next one.
Tim did a fabulous job of facilitating! So organized, so very familiar with the book, so graceful in acknowledging everyone’s contributions, yet moving the discussion along. I was very grateful when he told all the callers to hit Star 6 until they wanted to talk. The line got LOTS quieter after that!I
Hope to join you all again next month … can’t guarantee I can get a book read in a month, so I may skip to the next book to see if I can get one done in two months!
Thanks to all of you – especially to the organizers! I will spread the word to several who I think would enjoy it (and who would read the books!).
As you may know, it didn’t work out for me to be on a conference call at 5 pm Sunday. I did enjoy the Great Emergence.
I will get the next book and see if it is meant to be for the next call.
Barb mentioned the movie “I Am.” I went on line to find it and found several with that title. Which “I AM” is it? Could you give director, actors, time of release, a little about the story line so I can identify it? Many thanks!
HI Mary Jo, so glad you asked!
If you look again at the reference to Barb and “the movie I Am,” you should notice a dotted line underneath. That dotted line is a link right to the trailer. It would be nice if the “links” were more obvious, but now that you know what to look for, you can watch for the dotted underlines in these blogs. Those will be links to more information.