Emerging, Emergent, Emergence Part 2: Phyllis Tickle

In part 2 of our interview with Phyllis Tickle, we look at the relationship of science and faith, and why new seminarians might want to have a background in physics rather than theology. According to Tickle, our present epoch - referred to by some as "The Great Emergence" - has the potential to yield a new Christianity distinct from Protestantism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy.

Also on the program, Katy Scrogin reviews Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War, the new book by Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini.

About every five hundred years, something really big happens. This is the claim made by our guest, Phyllis Tickle, about human cultures over the last several thousand years. If correct, her analysis can help to explain the major shifts is religious practices in the West - the rise of Christianity from Judaism, the Great Schism, and the rise of Protestantism. Moreover, Tickle claims, we are living in a time of the next major shift: a "new thing" is coming, a distinct form of Christianity that is different from - but related to - Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodoxy.

In this two-part conversation, Dr. Tickle and David Dault discuss the problems in defining and naming this new epoch - Emerging? Emergence? Emergent? - and the ways in which non-religious fields like sociology, quantum physics, and nanoscience are shaping our understanding of religious faith in the 21st century.

Phyllis Tickle was the founding editor of the Religion Department of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, the international journal of the book industry. Tickle is an authority on religion in America and a much sought after lecturer on the subject. She is the author of over two dozen books on religion and spirituality. You can learn more about her work at her website.

Also on the Show

Katy Scrogin reviews Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War, the new book by Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini. 

From the publisher’s website:

"Rita Nakashima Brock and Gabriella Lettini, who both grew up in families deeply affected by war, have been working closely with vets on what moral injury looks like, how vets cope with it, and what can be done to heal the damage inflicted on soldiers' consciences.In Soul Repair, the authors tell the stories of four veterans of wars from Vietnam to our current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan—Camillo "Mac" Bica, Herman Keizer Jr., Pamela Lightsey, and Camilo Mejía—who reveal their experiences of moral injury from war and how they have learned to live with it. Brock and Lettini also explore its effect on families and communities, and the community processes that have gradually helped soldiers with their moral injuries."