transition from old>new theory

"Kuhn was wrong..

unlike Kuhn's description, an a encompassing theory does not overthrow the older theory--instead, it defines the limits within which the older theory is reliably true. It puts the old theory in a box and tells us where the walls are."
-Primack and Abrams, "The View From the Center of the Universe, p.24-25.

Click photo to see their accompanying chart, as it relates to physics/string theory.

See also McLaren's "A Generous Orthodoxy: (Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant,Liberal/Conservative,Mystical/Poetic, Biblical,Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN)," where he makes the case that church history/growth is best viewed as helical/emergent, where each new era incorporates/integrates the best of the previous: "Think of a cross section of a tree. Each ring represents not a replacement of the previous rings, not a rejection of them, but an embracing of them, a comprising of them and inclusion of them in something bigger. The tree’s previous growth is integrated into, and in fact is essential to, the tree’s continuing growth and strength. " - p.277

Of course, the Irish prophets have long known about the holy helix..