The opening lines of Dei Verbum, the text that has shaped Catholic biblical interpretation for the past fifty years, affirm Divine Revelation itself is an act of love.
Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God (see Col. 1:15, 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex. 33:11; John 15:14–15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that He may invite and take them into fellowship with Himself. (DV #2)
This course will explore the theme of love in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, in Luke-Acts, in the Pauline corpus, and most especially in the Johannine literature through a semantic field study of the words and concepts affiliated with love. The notions of love in the Old Testament as well as in ancient Greek philosophy will be discussed. Students will examine commentaries across the ages including several from the Patristic era, Thomas Aquinas, and the more recent scholarship of Ceslas Spicq OP, Francis J. Moloney SDB, Pheme Perkins, Luke Timothy Johnson and others. This course will require students to write an exegetical paper engaging the tools and methodology of modern Catholic biblical study. At the conclusion of this course students will be better equipped to convey through their teaching, worship, and witness the essence of the life of a disciple: loving God and neighbor.