includes interview with the author

Every five hundred years, Christianity has a rummage sale, and emerges much changed. We're in the midst of such change now. ( )

An investigation into the many changes in and influencing Christianity over the past few generations in terms of a 500 year cycle.

The author seeks to understand the many great changes going on throughout Christianity over the past few generations in terms of a 500 year cycle in which Christianity and society at large go through great tempestuous changes and come out with a new consensus, the first as the first century, then around 500-600 with the shift from the Roman Empire to medievalism and the rise of Gregory the Great and the monasteries, then 1054 with the Great Schism between East and West, the Reformation et al in the 1500s, and now in our own times.

The narrative is the strongest in terms of the discussion of the past: the analysis of the Reformation and how it came about is excellent, and the discussion of the changes that have come to modern society over the past century and a half is excellent as well.

By necessity, the challenge of such a work involves trying to figure out where everything is going. Perhaps people in the future will find this work rather prophetic, but we cannot know that yet. The author's analysis of how current trends might play out in the near future is insightful, but time will tell about how it all turns out.

This book presents an interesting prism through which to see the history of Christianity and where it might lead, and is worth exploring. ( )

This little book was quite thought-provoking. That being said having been thinking about it I dont agree with much of it. I think that personally we all think that our time in history is different and a dynamic important part of history. Of course there is no unimportant point in history but it is a bit presumptuous, and almost arrogant, to conclude that our time is a monumental moment in history. Tickle's theory of 500 year cycles strikes me as way too simple. I think history more than likely works in cycles but to set a time for that is a bit much. Additionally, she glosses over a great deal. There is so much that happened inside those 500 years that is arguably as important as the events she lists. Having said all that it does make a reasonable conversation starter. She does put together some interesting thoughts about the new directions in Christianity. ( )

I have great admiration for Phyllis Tickle, so I was intrigued by the perspective she puts forth in this book, that the church is ripe for reformation. I have experienced many of the early warning signs she points to, as old ways of doing religion become stale and decline, as conservative members of denominations retreat into their respective positions against change and liberals gather in the center around similar ideas. I doubt if any reformers knew what they were unleashing in their own times, but Tickle gives us much food for thought about how to understand the changes we are living. It is a very hopeful book. ( )