Bishop Joseph Strickland answers the German "experts" who told the world that Jesus drank too much and had a temper - and his answer is not the one you expect. The scandal, he says, is not the conclusion. It is that they never started from faith at all.

"They didn't start from faith. They didn't start with the apostolic belief that - what does Peter say? You are the Son of the living God. That doesn't sound like the Son of the living God that they're studying." - Bishop Joseph Strickland

This is Part 2 of our conversation with Bishop Strickland about his Pillars of Faith podcast, The Watchman's Lamp. In the September 4 episode, "Opening the Scriptures to the Flock," the bishop works through Dei Verbum and calls his brother bishops back to the first duty of the office they hold: to teach the Word of God.

The occasion is a story out of Germany. Katholisch.de, the news portal of the German bishops' conference, published a summary of a new book by two lay academics, Simone and Claudia Paganini, which reads Job as obsessive-compulsive, describes Jesus as inclined toward alcohol and an "impulse control disorder," and treats the seven demons cast out of Mary Magdalene as mental illness.

Bishop Strickland does not answer it with a press release. He answers it with a question asked out loud: do these people really believe?

He also lets something slip about what comes next at Pillars of Faith - "something bigger than I can even imagine handling" - and he will not yet say what it is.

CHAPTERS
0:00 "That drivel in Germany"
0:53 Welcome to A Catholic Take
1:06 Bishop Strickland's new podcast: Opening the Scriptures to the Flock
1:20 The German "experts" who diagnosed Jesus
2:07 Dei Verbum: a revealed faith, and what "condescension" really means
3:12 "They didn't start from faith"
4:17 "That Jesus had an alcohol problem. What are they talking about?"
4:49 "Do these people really believe?"
5:42 The St. Philip Institute, and something bigger coming
7:09 Sponsor: iCatholic Mobile
8:02 Pope Leo and the Lutheran women bishops
8:52 "Passages that brought me to tears"

SCRIPTURE
Matthew 16:16 - "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God."
John 1:14 - "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
Philippians 2:6-8 - He "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant."

DOCUMENTS REFERENCED
Dei Verbum 12 - Vatican II, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, November 18, 1965. Scripture must be read in the same Spirit in which it was written, and "the living tradition of the whole Church must be taken into account."
Dei Verbum 13 - the "marvelous condescension of eternal wisdom," God stooping to speak to us in our own language.

SOURCES
Bishop Joseph Strickland, "Opening the Scriptures to the Flock" - The Watchman's Lamp, Pillars of Faith, September 4, 2026
https://pillarsoffaith.net/
katholisch.de, "Experten: Viele biblische Figuren zeigen psychische Auffaelligkeiten"
https://katholisch.de/artikel/70153-experten-viele-biblische-figuren-zeigen-psychische-auffaelligkeiten
Simone Paganini and Claudia Paganini, "Zwischen Wahn und Weisheit" (Guetersloher Verlagshaus, 2026)
St. Philip Institute of Catechesis and Evangelization, Diocese of Tyler
https://www.stphilipinstitute.com/

WATCH PART 1
Bishop Strickland: The Council Was Valid. What They Did With It Wasn't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKAR-svSDEY

FULL LIVESTREAM
Bishop Strickland: Are We the "Prophets of Doom"? - ACT LIVE 9-4-26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfr8nmwwmls

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSOR
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https://www.icatholicmobile.com/

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