Michelle’s Theology Blog

Purity refers to the virtue of being clean of any contamination or adulteration, and it is often associated with being morally untainted. As Douglas points out, purity has always been directly linked to hygiene and the lack of disorder, which, historically, peoples have always sought after. Impurity, logically, would be the lack of this virtue. God requires the maintenance of purity because it represents dedication and reverence as well as freeness from sin and evil. Striving to be pure allows us to be more moral, virtuous human beings and therefore hold a stronger, less damaged relationship with God. Commentators on the impurity laws discussed in Leviticus still debate whether or not impurity is directly linked with death. Cleansing traditions and religion are similar in the way that they are conventional practices that ward off an unwanted evil. In a secular sense, hygiene wards off germs and disease, and in the religious sense, purity gets rid of evil spirits and immorality. Impurity in Leviticus, according to God, relates to forbidden sexual behavior, foods, and physical conditions. Things like bodily fluids and dead bodies are related to impurity, which even today is directly linked to uncleanliness. Ritual cleansing in the form of sacrificing, traditions, a waiting period or even death is how God instructs his people to eliminate impurity. God is also very explicit when describing which foods are impure, and His people, therefore, should not eat them. The logic behind the forbiddance of eating impure animals is that purity is related to lack of blemishes, and ultimately holiness. As Douglas says, “to be holy is to be whole,” and it is directly associated with perfection. Forbidding unclean foods and practices is a constant reminder through specific practices to strive to be whole and perfect and free of sin as God commands.

As Bonhoeffer says, “We ought to find God not in our moments of need and failure, but amid the fullness of earthly life; only in this way could it be shown that God is not an escape, constructed by necessity, which becomes more and more superfluous as the limits of our powers expand.” God is the higher power we must strive to have a constant, dynamic relationship with throughout our lives as we grow in faith and experience. We, as humans, have a desire for purpose and meaning in our lives just by questioning why and how the world around us exists, and God fulfills this want. We “yearn for the unbounded” because we are limited and not satisfied in self-sufficiency and want to believe in something greater that is outside of ourselves. The belief in a God also comes from man’s feelings of loneliness that nothing in the world can quell like the comforting idea of a God can. Without belief in a God, the world can seem hopeless, dark, and lonely. Humans crave a higher purpose and an explanation for the everyday occurrences and phenomena around us. God presents hope for the future and a moral incentive in the present to keep us peacefully coexisting. We simultaneously fear and praise Him because we will never fully understand the vast majority of concepts that lie around believing in Him, like the idea of the Holy Trinity. When we profess our faith, we make an existential decision along others in our faith community. Since he is God the father, he is not the God of any one place, but the God of the people, and “he is therefore not bound to one spot but is present and powerful wherever man is.” God is present wherever man allows him to be.

As everyone knows, Joseph was the favorite of his father’s sons, and he was given the “amazing technicolor dreamcoat.” Joseph pays a very high cost for being the “elect” son, which he does even not choose for himself. This favoritism leads to his brothers becoming wildly jealous of Joseph, and he is dropped in a pit and sold into slavery in Egypt. They bring back his bloodied garments, and Jacob is convinced his favorite son is dead. Eventually, however, Joseph, with God’s help, climbs the hierarchal ladder in Egypt with his gift of interpreting dreams. Now, the brothers are coming to Joseph, whom they know as a powerful leader in Egypt, not their long lost brother, to beg for food during the famine, and Joseph sneaks a silver cup in the youngest brother Benjamin’s sack of food. As the youngest brother, it seems that Benjamin has now become his father’s favorite, so Joseph chooses Benjamin out of all the brothers for this reason. Joseph is testing his brothers to see if they will condemn and betray Benjamin and prove that they are the same wicked men who will do anything to get rid of their father’s favorite. Fortunately, the brothers, especially Judah, refuse to leave without Benjamin and defend him, for Benjamin’s own sake and for Jacob’s sake, who will be crushed without Benjamin. By doing this, the brothers prove to Joseph that they have changed and now are merciful, understanding, and considerate of others, so Joseph reveals his identity. It seems like they have all grown morally and spiritually, leaving their spiteful ways behind. Anderson recognizes cycles like this in both Jacob and Joseph’s biblical stories. Favoritism occurs and jealousy and anger consume their relatives. But, as Anderson says, both stories end with “the reconciliation of the brothers,” illustrating the proper way to grow and give mercy.

The dictionary definition of religion is “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.” Religion, especially to Notre Dame students, has complex meanings to everyone who encounters it. Notre Dame students, who knowingly enrolled in a Catholic university, are required to take theology courses in order to learn more about faith and the sophisticated study of God in an open setting that no other class can truly provide. Students come to appreciate Catholicism more and are called upon to question what they believe and to wrestle with the meaning of religion altogether. Like Cavanaugh says in “Violence, Religion, and the State,” “Religion focuses our ultimate concern.” It calls us to question our priorities, our desires, and our own moral codes. Taking a theology course at Notre Dame has already begun to bring questions to my mind that I haven’t consider before. Even the rejection of any specific religion calls the person to question where they are, where they eventually want to be, and how they are ultimately going to get there. He also characterizes religion as a way to build community, which I believe is evident in the unmatched community here at Notre Dame, which is not solely because it is a Catholic university, but I think it definitely contributes. Another key aspect of religion is its inclusion of stories, symbols, rites, behaviors, and ceremonies, which provide tangible and meaningful ways of worship and reverence. Without these key elements, religion is difficult to practice and uphold for a lot of people because it may seem lacking in substance or abstract. Objects, practices, and objects like these give people an easier way to connect with and uphold their religion, so they are vital. Religion is different for every person who encounters it, but it has a way of changing the worldview of many people in a positive light.

According to Wilken, faith, or the consideration of faith in order to consequently decide it is useless, is inevitable. He quotes, “A desire to know the truth of things has been implanted in our souls and is natural to human beings,” and this describes how curiosity and thought about a higher being is inside all of us, and this desire will eventually manifest itself. Seeing and experiencing the world around us naturally causes us to wonder how everyday phenomena and Earth’s wonders are possible and why they and we exist. This brings into question who designed the increasingly complex world that surrounds us. Humans inherently have a desire for the truth, so throughout our lives, we will inevitably come across the enigma of if a higher power gave us life and every object that exists. Faith is beneficial because it gives life a purpose and a comforting meaning. Although the absence of definite proof can be discouraging, faith revolves around a trust in a higher being without having the complete truth. Without faith, the world around us can seem bleak, and life can seem meaningless. Augustine says “Nothing would remain stable in human society if we determined to believe only what can be held with absolute certainty,” and I think this holds true. Augustine also equates practicing religion to learning a new skill in that “it involves practices, attitudes, and dispositions and has to do with ordering one’s loves.” Skills are beneficial as means and in themselves because you develop yourself as a person and become a generally more complex, well-rounded person, especially faith as a skill. Faith improves one’s ability to love as well as being making a person more mindful and self aware. Faith is also valuable in binding people together through thoughtful conversation and making a community of worship.

Adam agrees to this request because he fears and trusts God. Abraham relies on God to command him and then fulfill what he has promised Abraham, in this case, like Kass says, “land, seed, and a great name.” God’s promises to Abraham directly align with his deepest desires and longings, so Abraham listens to what God commands of him. Sacrificing his son Isaac is a deeply difficult action, but God is the one who gave Abraham this son, so Abraham must trust that God’s plan for him will work out in the end, even though the promise of many children has seemed grim. Abraham may have lied in these lines (22:5 and 22:8) where he promises his servants and Isaac that they will be sacrificing a lamb, but he probably did this because he knew that Isaac and his servants did not have as strong a faith in God as he did. He had to lie to obey God, otherwise his sacrifice may have gone awry. God makes Abraham go through this ordeal to test his faithfulness and unwavering obedience to Him. God probably does not want to see Isaac die, but He might be showing Abraham that his relationship to God should always come before any others, including family and offspring. Adam is praiseworthy in the sense that he is extremely obedient to God’s commands, but it seems like being willing to betray his own son to this extent should not be worthy of praise. God has made it very clear up to this point that he does not look favorably upon violence and murder, but Abraham is willing to do so anyway because God says. Although it seems Abraham is in a win-win situation, since either way he is obeying God, I think he should have been more hesitant or not attempted to kill Isaac. In this situation, I am somewhat skeptical of God’s actions here, even though this is a clever test. I think an enigmatic command like this is definitely an effective test of faithfulness, but risking Isaacs life isn’t very favorable, even if God stopped Abraham before he committed murder.

The story of Noah’s Ark directly relates to the story of Adam and Eve because of the concept of man’s disobedience toward God and in turn His punishment to humankind. Sin is a theme all throughout Genesis, which is an effective way to begin the Bible, because knowledge of sin is an essential part to reading and understanding the Bible. In both cases, man commits a grave sin that God cannot accept. In Adam and Eve’s case, they are banished from the Garden of Eden for doing what God explicitly said not to do, eating from the Tree of Knowledge. In the case of Noah’s Ark, the world became ridden with sin and violence, so God sent a flood to cleanse the Earth. As Kass says, Noah is the first man born into the world after Adam, and this might be the reason he is tasked with fixing the sins plaguing the Earth. Noah has no contact with Adam and therefore no knowledge of the immortal life Adam experienced. Noah better understands the concept of death, and this might make him more God-fearing and obedient than Adam was. In the story of Noah’s Ark, he is spared from the flood that cleanses the Earth because he is seen as graceful in God’s eyes. Noah is different than the rest of mankind because they were living with the concept of immortality and with arrogance and great expectations. Noah is conscious of his impending death and more conscious of his actions. Kass says “Death is… the beautification of an ugly world,” so God sends the flood to beautify the world ridden with pride and violence. It is even said that God “repented” creating humans because of these sins. These stories in Genesis may be to explain why God made man mortal and to remind us of the consequences of grave sins.