Snowed Out, School of Theology and Seminary Presenter Honored

Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary student Alex Blechle had a paper accepted to The American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature’s annual Upper-Midwest regional conference.

The American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature seeks to understand and reflect upon major theological questions. The organization encourages communication and discussion among teachers and scholars across many religious traditions in order to understand a greater truth. The Upper Midwest Region consists of members who reside in Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, or Wisconsin.

The annual conference was scheduled at the University of Saint Thomas for the weekend of April 14, but was cancelled due to weather.

Blechle was going to present his research at the conference. His paper, titled “A Non-Dualistic Reading of Body and Soul in the Gospel of Matthew: Focusing on Matthew 10:39 in the Context of Discipleship”, contrasted the Matthean Gospel’s use of body and soul against the Platonic perspective, and the near-contemporaneous writings of body and soul by the Middle-Platonists.

He wrote his paper for his Gospel of Matthew class, taught by Dr. Charles Bobertz. Blechle said he came into his graduate program knowing that he wanted to submit a paper to a conference.

“Dr. Bobertz was very supportive once I told him I wanted to submit the paper from his course, and he helped me rewrite my original piece and gave me plenty of advice for retooling my class paper into a conference paper,” Blechle said.

Congratulations to Blechle for this opportunity and all of the hard work it took to achieve it!