Author Archives: aschierl

Jesus says “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Mt 5:17). This means that Jesus must be a living example of scriptural fulfillment, which follows that unpacking Jesus’ life would lead to deeper understanding of the meaning of fulfillment.Continue reading “March 3”

By my readings of the chapters in Numbers, I would say that the wilderness generation is led to condemnation because they fail to appreciate the liberation and mercy that God has given them. Rather, they are seen complaining about the lack of food and drink they are provided and even wishing that they could beContinue reading “February 20”

Purity and impurity are both very complex terms when it comes to the Bible and spiritual interpretations. As Douglas explains, purity and impurity as described in Leviticus take on very symbolic and metaphorical meanings. Purity overall is associated with order and goodness, whereas impurity is associated with disorder and unnatural functions. God requires the maintenanceContinue reading “February 18”

After reading the assigned chapters in Exodus and the Ratzinger excerpt, I come to the conclusion that God is simple in his complexity. God is a being to whom it is impossible to assign a name to; nobody else is worthy of naming him. This is why God demonstrates such repulsion when Jacob and MosesContinue reading “February 11”

Joseph plants the silver cup because he wants to test his brothers to see if they have changed at all since they betrayed him. As Anderson points out, the brothers may “act to rid themselves of a favored sibling” or they may choose an option that requires a “supreme sacrifice” on their own part. JosephContinue reading “February 6”

In Genesis Chapter 32, Jacob wrestles with God. Although God is disguised as an unknown man in the text, it is clear that he is divine because he carries a sense of authority about him. He bears the right to change Jacob’s name to Israel, and as we discussed in lecture, the right to nameContinue reading “February 4”

It is difficult to define so complex a phenomenon as religion, especially because initially it seems like something everyone inherently knows about. However, once broken down, as Cavanaugh did in his article, religion is quite complex and can easily be confused for many other things like nationalism or cultism. The five features of religion thatContinue reading “January 30”

According to Wilken and his source Augustine, faith is unavoidable because without faith, we would not have substantial knowledge of any kind. Most things in life we will never know for certain. Our understanding of knowledge, specifically historical knowledge, depends on “the veracity of the witness,” whereas something like mathematical knowledge is certain and demonstrable.Continue reading “January 28”

(1) Why does Abraham agree to the request made of him by God?  In Genesis 17, God makes a covenant with Abram which will him the father of many nations with “exceedingly numerous” offspring. Seeing as Abram had no children and his wife Sarai was old, God’s promise seems highly improbable and far-fetched. Yet, AbramContinue reading “January 23”

In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve fell from grace because they took the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil specifically after God told them not to. Because they were too prideful and self indulgent, they refused to simply love and obey God even though that would have been the bestContinue reading “January 21”