09/24/15

Phyllis Tickle passed away on Tuesday, September 22, at her home near Memphis, TN. She was eighty-one years old. In May Tickle had announced that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Tickle was the founding editor of the religion department at Publishers Weekly. She authored nearly forty books, including three books with Baker Publishing Group: Emergence Christianity, The Great Emergence, and The Age of the Spirit. She was frequently quoted and interviewed in such media outlets as the New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Time, CNN, C-SPAN, and PBS. Tickle was a lector and lay Eucharistic minister in the Episcopal Church. She held the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from both Berkeley School of Divinity at Yale University and from North Park University.

“We at Baker Publishing Group have been blessed richly by Phyllis Tickle, as a business mentor, author, and mostly as a sister in Christ,” said Dwight Baker, president of Baker Publishing Group. “In the 1990s, when our Christian book community remained stuck in self-imposed exile, Phyllis introduced us to the wider universe of publishing. She did so with her characteristic charm and courage, and we followed her leadership to our great benefit. Everybody was enriched by Phyllis Tickle’s appearance into our industry.”

Chad Allen, editorial director of Baker Books, stated of Tickle’s passing, “We’re deeply saddened by this news. Phyllis was a profound thinker, an erudite observer of religion and culture, a committed pioneer of the faith, and just a dear, dear friend to us here at Baker. We’re going to miss her terribly. We take some solace in knowing her books, three of which we were pleased to publish, will continue to contribute to the formation of our faith’s practice for years to come.”

Baker Publishing Group publishes high-quality writings that represent historic Christianity and serve the diverse interests and concerns of evangelical readers.