zompist bboard

As a religion and theology nerd, I am kind of curious about the Tunisian religion in the Incatena universe. What sorts of theological evolution in Islam and Christian evangelicalism would lead to something like that? What are the core tenets, and how do they reconcile the Christian view of Christ as both fully God and fully man and the doctrine of the Trinity with the Muslim concept of Tawhid? How do the other Christian churches respond to this syncretism? How do the various Islamic legal schools and theological traditions (both Sunni and Shia) respond to the emergence of the Tunisian movement? Do other denominations engage in similar practices? Personally, I see it as kind of a stretch, to say the least, but I can imagine what movements might've inspired it: Chrislam, Baha'i, Mormonism, Oneness Pentecostalism, and Twelver Shi'ism come to mind. Am I off the mark? Personally, I wonder if there was a similar movement with neo-Pagans or Wiccans and liberal protestants (I am an ELCA Lutheran, btw). Any information on religion in the Incatena would be enlightening

A fuller treatment of Incatena religion is probably going to have to wait for the next book. But my idea is that the Tunisians emerged out of the collapse, when both Western and Islamic cultures were hit hard and the grip of old ideologies was loosened. Other groups didn't accept their union, but the Tunisians were fiercely evangelizing and so spread quickly-- even more so on other planets, freed from the regional loyalties of Earth.

I agree that splits are much more common than mergers in religion-- though I can think of one: Unitarians + universalists. Wikipedia tells me that your denomination is a merger of three churches. And you mention groups like the Baha'is, suggesting that a major new religion may well be syncretistic.

Exactly how they do the theological sleight of hand I don't know, but on the historical scale religions are pretty adaptable. The best example is Christianity itself, which cheerfully reads the Old Testament while not following the Jewish Law. Christians and Muslims already agree on the unity and sovereignty of God, the Virgin Birth, and Jesus being taken up into Heaven. The Tunisians would revere Jesus a little more than Muslims and a little less than Christians.