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(This is a guest post that a TTL friend wrote some time ago for a defunct blog. Posted here for your consideration.)
When I ask myself if Christendom is compatible with
TTL philosophy, I think first of Jesus the person (insofar as we know of him from Scripture). He is TTL in many ways. Consider: adored children ("a little child shall lead them"), loved parties, turned water into wine, doodled with a stick in the sand when the legal authorities tried to trick him into being Wrong, and advised freedom from anxiety about the future ("Consider the lilies of the field..."). I imagine him laughing, playing, and frankly mocking anyone obsessed with money and status.
Then I realize that Jesus' freedom was anchored in cognitive certainty. A Jew who had committed the Torah to memory, he spoke without doubt about his "father in heaven" (who would meet the needs of said lilies in the field) and deemed the "law" of compassion non-negotiable. He therefore challenged the view that certainty and playfulness are incompatible; his assuredness that Yahweh was caring for his needs left him child-like and compassionate. The interdependence of a cornerstone of knowledge with freedom from anxiety fits what I know of psychology: Kids from stable homes (and those who are held more than others) have fewer anxiety disorders as adults, regardless of the culture. Jesus, then, exemplifies for me what Alexander Lowen believed about human nature: that "surrender" must be balanced by "grounding"; surrender alone is illustrated dramatically by schizophrenia; grounding without surrender by Puritanism.
Susan Wennemyr is a theologian who has been a college professor, stay-at-home mom, writer, and entrepreneur in conscientious investing. 
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