TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I 1. Introduction 2. The Pure Logic of Theology 3. Theological Background - Aquinian Christian Science with Unitarians, and Pentecostal Leanings 4. Unitarians 5. Enter Pope Francis 6. The Substance of the Email I Sent on Muslims a. Apostate Europe b. Lessons from Francis c. Lessons from St. Dominic d. Muslims as the Blessed of Ishmael e. Lessons from Jews for Jesus f. Regarding Theological Divergence g. Note on Neopaganism 7. French Pears 8. An Ecumenical Rosetta Stone 9. Speaking of Ecumenism, My Parents 10. My Christian Ethos 11. The Christian Science Church, Not a Cult, but Who Cares? 12. Innovation? or Willful Naïveté? 13. Mary Baker Eddy’s Contribution, Christus Viktor 14. Eugenic Pseudo Science 15. Two Mary Baker Eddies, the Legend and the Church Lady 16. Where Am I Going with All This? 17. The Viewpoint Problem in Explanation 1 | Ecumenism, T rinity, Unity, Christian Science Reed Troutman 18. Theology, What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You 19. Was Mary Baker Eddy a Heretic? 20. The Ambitious Mary Baker Eddy 21. Mary Baker Eddy’s Sola Scriptura 22. Historical Pendula in Intellectual Christianity 23. Pendula in Nominal Change 24. I Am a Heretic Too 25. Editorial Bias 26. Working Backwards from Calvin 27. Theological Update Needed in the Christian Science Church, like in the Muslim Faith 28. All Seriousness Aside, My Great Disappointment 29. Spiritualizing Them Bones, Christian Scientists Versus Jehovah’s Witnesses 30. Updates for the Christian Science Church Part II 1. But Seriously, Does Belief in the Trinity Make us Christian? 2. Trinitarianism and Unitarianism in the Doctrine of the Trinity - An Alternate History of the Doctrine and the Unitarian Church 3. WWJD, Freedom of Conscience and Epistemology in the Enlightenment 4. Free Churches 5. Bonhoeffer’s “god who could Be Proved” 6. The Christian Scientists as a Free Church 7. “Unitarian Trinitarianism” a Free Choice, like in 12 Step Programs 8. The Doctrine of No Doctrines 9. The Doctrine of No Doctrines in Practice 10. Revival of Parts of Apostolic Tradition and Monastic Practices 11. What is the Straight Gate? 2 | Ecumenism, T rinity, Unity, Christian Science Reed Troutman 12. Submission to God and No One Else, Neither Bowing before the Crown, Nor Kissing the Ring 13. Adolph Von Harnack on Catholicism 14. Freedom qua Authenticity in Religion 15. Arminianism vs. Calvinism, Remonstrants vs. the Dutch Reformed Church, Wesley, vs. Whitfield, Mary Baker Eddy Vs. Calvin, Unitarian vs. Calvinist, NeoCalvinism vs. Billy Graham, Old Calvinism vs. New Calvinism 16. The Mischief Rule Hermeneutic 17. Old Calvinist TULIP vs. NeoCalvinist Evangelical-TULIP 18. Again, All Seriousness Aside: Spicy Ketchup 19. Protestant Christology and Catholic Mariology 20. Water Baptism 21. Who Decides which Churches Are Trinitarian? 22. Christian Science Marriages 23. Hyper-Egalitarian Trinitarianists In-Depth 24. Popery in the Christian Science Church 25. Two Bits of Theology, Census and Pain-Free Birth of Jesus 26. Mark Twain’s Criticism, as Endorsed by Val Kilmer 27. CS Lewis’ Literary Sola Scriptura 28. The Emperor Has No Clothes, but You Will Be Beaten if You Say So 29. Oppression and Scapegoating in the Christian Church 30. Two More Associated Problems, the Missing Christians and the Disturbed 31. The Status of Christians as the Status of Persons 32. Pragmatism in Theology 33. Phillip Yancey on Eastern Reaction to Jesus’ Crucifixion 34. The Safest Place on Earth, Mary’s Crypt 35. Peter Kreeft, a Modern Thomist's Example, and Bonhoeffer 36. Athanasius and the Athanasian Heresy 3 | Ecumenism, T rinity, Unity, Christian Science Reed Troutman 37. John Henry Newman’s Criticism of Protestant Trinitarianism 38. Heresy’s Etymology 39. First Century Christianity According to St. Peter and Harnack 40. Textual Criticism of the Koran, Embellishment vs. Simplification 41. The Psychological Angle - Please Understand Me II 42. The Five Love Languages of Gary Chapman 43. Feminist Literature's Standpoint Epistemology 44. Jesus the “Mass Man” According to Atheists and Popular Science 45. Mary the “Mass Woman” According to Protestants 46. Heuristic Theology 47. The Ecumenical Lesson of My Father 48. Theological Mistakes, Failures 49. Missing the Joke 50. God is Silly, Taking Giddiness Back 51. But All Seriousness Aside, Blaise Pascal 4 | Ecumenism, T rinity, Unity, Christian Science Reed Troutman Reed Troutman January 14, 2016 (Back to Top) Part I Introduction What got me thinking seriously about ecumenism was an email I sent to a friend on my view of the Christian mission to Muslims. I sent it a couple months ago while thinking about Muslim- Christian ecumenism and it got some wheels turning in my head over what needs to be said in general about ecumenism within the Christian community. I am glad the topic occurred to me a couple months earlier, as I was able to get my thoughts on Muslims out without the cognitive dissonance of watching the escalation of the refugee crisis in Europe and the violence of the Paris attacks in France, which now we Californians have seen erupt in San Bernardino as well. Of course, as a Christian I see some major issues where the Koran needs to be reconciled with the Christian faith. The most important of these is that they see it as blasphemy to say that Jesus is God, but I think there is a functional equivalent between the Christian view of the docetic heresy, and the Muslim view that the statement “Jesus is God” is blasphemous, because Muslims fail to understand what is meant by unity of “essence” rather than “persons” of the Trinity. So I think it is a reconcilable point. Some might wonder about the sagacity of studying ecumenism at this time though, in the context of so much religious extremism in the news, and I would counter that this is the perfect time to be studying ecumenism. Though ecumenism and religious violence need not be studied together, the ecumenical impulse can be viewed as a polar opposite of the impulse to religious violence and is a way of circumventing religious hostility. Ecumenism is animated by ongoing give-and- take engagement, while religious violence issues from a place of judgment where we dare to place ourselves alongside God in deciding ultimate questions for others. The religiously motivated violence that we see emanating from extremist Muslims or anti-abortion activists, is a problem that contrasts with ecumenism and may be amenable to the philosophical/theological dialogue, making this discussion timely considering the urgency of dialogue that is increased by crises of violence. And now we see Professor Larycia Hawkins has her tenured teaching position at Wheaton put in jeopardy for being an ecumenical Christian who dares to agree with Pope Francis in her understanding of God, as both the monotheistic God of Abraham and Muhammad, and as being the same as the Christian deity, which makes her doctrinally a theologically misspoken evangelical in Wheaton’s eyes. Incidentally, when Muslims say we are all people of the Book, they are referring to Moses’ Book of the Law, that we are people of the Torah, which Jesus said He came to uphold rather than abolish. So in quoting the Jewish and Muslim way of identifying with God’s law, Professor Hawkins was not necessarily being un-Christian, and while the 5 | Ecumenism, T rinity, Unity, Christian Science Reed Troutman question of whether we worship the same God as Muslims is slightly more complicated, many think she is correct on this point too. Her understanding may not be going against the majority view within Christianity, but against a specific version of protestant orthodoxy. By saying that there is only One God that Christians and Muslims both worship, and from Whom we are blessed with our universal human dignity by being created in the image of God, she may be only starting from a different point in understanding of the Trinity than Wheaton college is, resulting in mere terminological difference. We could joke that starting from a different theological angle is too much popery for Wheaton. But we should actually admire Wheaton for sticking to their theological guns and making an issue out of theology, which people too often think of as a dead letter and throw out the window in favor of go-along to get-along attitudes about what are actually the most important questions in the intellectual side of religion. Though we hope they will be receptive to Professor Hawkins’ desire for reconciliation as well. This is a great chance for Professor Hawkins and Wheaton to give the world an example of theological debate and reconciliation. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, the gospel makes room for itself on earth, even and precisely when no such opportunity is offered to it, and in her suspension we see both Professor Hawkins and the theological decision makers at Wheaton carrying their crosses. As a discreet theological question, one of them has to be correct. Either Christians and Muslims worship God or they don’t. Understanding Jesus divinity correctly is either required as a precondition of God’s hearing our prayers, or it isn’t. But rather than a novel question, this is one that has plagued Christians for our entire history. Who is a Christian, who is saved? Oftentimes in history the question has revolved, as at Wheaton, around how the Godhead is defined. Wheaton and Professor Hawkins are now set to rehash the same arguments that divided Arians from Athanasians during the council of Nicaea, and which remain controverted among various Christian groups, not to mention among Muslims, Jewish, and secular groups. Perhaps the examination shared here of differing conceptions of the Trinity within Christendom can be helpful to anyone trying to understand the conflict at Wheaton, in history and as a matter of ecclesiology.