Thursday Journey — How We Got Here: The Story of Saints, Sinners, and Sacred Surprises
10:00 am to 11:30 am in the Activities Room
Where Are We Going?
Phyllis Tickle famously described Christian history as unfolding in 500-year eras:
• 1–500: Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church
• 500–1000: The Dark Ages
• 1000–1500: The High and Late Middle Ages
• 1500–2000: The Reformation and Modernity
Throughout history, each shift came with a huge event that changed everything:
• the birth of Jesus
• the fall of Rome
• the Great Schism of 1054
• Luther’s 95 Theses in 1517
Do the math, and you notice something: We’re standing at the threshold of a new era. And every time a new era dawns, the Church changes — sometimes dramatically. Perhaps the event for our new era is the election of Donald Trump as the US President. (This is not a political statement, good or bad. It is just an event that has had a major impact on our culture.)
At the same time, new generations (X, Y, and Z) began bringing a different set of values:
• a deep distrust of institutions — including “religion” as a category,
• resistance to rules, doctrines, and dogmas that dictate “correct” belief,
• and a preference for non-hierarchical, networked structures (think: the internet, open-source collaboration, even insights from quantum theory).
So where is the Church going next? No one can say with certainty — but we can name the signs, trace the patterns, and make some thoughtful, Spirit-guided guesses.
Join us on the first two Thursdays in December as we explore the future of the Church — and our place in it. Then on the third Thursday we will wrap up this whole series.
The schedule:
*November 27 THANKSGIVING No Class
December 4 The River of Contemporary Faith Diana Butler Bass
December 11 The Post-Modern Church Stewart
December 18 Questions and Comments Diana Butler Bass
Suggested book to enrich your participation:
A People’s History of Christianity by Diana Butler Bass. HarperOne, 2009.
(Amazon: $8.99 paperback)
