Slouching Toward Bethlehemfrom Emergent Village by Steve Knight

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Slouching Toward Bethlehem
from Emergent Village by Steve Knight

By Julie Clawson, re-posted from onehandclapping:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

—W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming

I remember that this poem captured my imagination back when I was in high school. Yeats’ personal beliefs held that history moved in 2,000 year cycles as represented by conical spirals. One spiral represented religious power and the other secular powers. As history unfolded, these “gyres” increased and decreased in inverse proportions. Every 2,000 years a major upheaval occurred for each. So around the birth of Christ, the secular Empire of Rome was at its strongest and religious power weak. But at that moment, history shifted with the birth of Christ. Religion increased in power for the next 1,000 years then started to decrease as scientific advances began giving secular systems the edge. To Yeats, as the year 2000 approached and religion spiraled down to its weakest point, the stage was set for some great change to occur. And so he asked — “what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”

While I didn’t buy into Yeats’ occult beliefs in dualistic powers guiding the unfolding of history, I recognized the truth behind the patterns and changes in history he described. History, especially religious history, does seem to function in cycles of a sort. One witnesses some great event or renewal movement that inspires a few generations but which dwindles in influence and power over time. Eventually its power and passion have become so weak that a new renewal occurs starting the cycle over again. It is fascinating to trace these sorts of developments through history.

So I’ve been intrigued to hear Phyllis Tickle speaking and writing on these historical trends recently. I assume this is the topic of her upcoming book The Great Emergence, but I’ve heard her speak on it recently on the Mars Hill podcasts and to Sojourners Magazine. She describes that every 500 years, there is upheaval and renewal in the church — and that we are in one of those times right now. The zeitgeist of the age, the issues in the world, and the moving of the Holy Spirit all conspire to effect great change. Phyllis Tickle is calling our current change the “great emergence” — referring not just to the emerging church, but to all the reforming movements in the church today. I look forward to reading her book and hearing more of her perspective on the matter.

But what amuses me the most is that the current changes occurring in the church (and the ones in the past for that matter) were viewed as a malevolent force more reminiscent of Yeats’ “rough beast” than the movings of the Holy Spirit. Change is feared and its harbingers vilified (if I hear one more person refer to Brian McLaren as the antichrist …). The calls of the reformers are not properly understood and often seen as a rejection of all that has come before. While it may be difficult to convince some that questioning and critique is not rejection (or arrogance), I think Yeats’ imagery could prove useful in this case. The widening gyres represent a continuous unfolding of history that expands and contracts, but never breaks away fully from its spherical path. What one experiences is a shift not a genesis. Accepting that perspective may help some more easily dwell within the unfolding of history.

With Yeats’ I agree that “things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” But I believe that to be a good thing — the impetus that pushes us to renewal and revival.

Julie ClawsonJulie Clawson has spent the last few years helping plant an emerging church in the Chicago suburbs, but will soon be heading back home to Austin, Texas. She is currently working on a book about everyday justice issues.