Scripture

A survey of the religious traditions of Ancient Israel as reflected in the diverse literature of the Old Testament, with emphasis on their ongoing historical development. Also, the course aims to give students an appreciation for the Old Testament as an expression of the Israelites’ relationship to their God. It will begin with the Old Testament’s own context which will become a foundation to allow the student to begin thinking exegetically. Attention will be given to the Catholic framework for approaching scripture.

This course is a basic introduction to Scripture for graduate students without previous background in Scripture. The course covers both the Old and New Testaments in their own contexts, thematic parallels between them, and gives attention to how the Catholic intellectual tradition engages these textual traditions.

The New Testament is an integral source for understanding and contextualizing the mission of Jesus as well as understanding the theological heritage of the Church. Understanding the New Testament authors, their methods of communication, and their historical contexts, is the first step before any application of these texts may take place. This course gives students an appreciation for the New Testament as an early and developing witness to Jesus Christ.

This course introduces students to the Gospel of John and other Johannine literature in the New Testament. These texts are situated in their historical and cultural context in order to better appreciate their major themes and the distinctive contribution of Johannine literature to the New Testament and to the Catholic tradition.

This course investigates Pauline literature and the theologies represented in these writings. Students are introduced to a variety of approaches to Pauline texts as well as critical scholarly debates in Pauline studies. While texts are studied in their original historical and cultural context, attention is also paid to their relevance in the Catholic tradition.

The objectives of this course are to gain an appreciation for and knowledge of the three Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, to understand their purpose and meaning, their historical significance and relationship to the life and person of Jesus. Each Gospel will be studied individually, considering the theology, history, and literary dimensions of each. We will also address theories of the formation of the Gospels (“Synoptic Question”), oral tradition, historical and literary concerns, issues of interpretation of sacred Scripture, and the role of the Gospels in the life of the Church. 

In this introduction to the Gospels, we will concentrate on the theological content of the Gospels in an integrative manner by considering the themes common amongst all the Gospels. In our study we will rely on our reading of the Gospels, Church documents, such as Dei Verbum and The Historicity of the Gospels (PBC), and current scholarly secondary literature.

Following the study of the Gospels, this course will also examine Acts of the Apostles as the second volume of a two-volume set with the Gospel of Luke. The Acts of the Apostles is a narrative history set in the earliest decades of Christianity that describes the growth of the Church and the spread of the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire.  As the second volume of the Gospel of Luke, on occasion we will draw connections and parallels to the themes of the Gospel, yet it is important to study the narrative and content of Acts in the context of Greco-Roman historiography as it is the only surviving history from the first 200 years of the early Church. Questions of authorship, date, structure, and theology will all be addressed

This course introduces students to the canonical corpus of the Old Testament traditionally referred to as the Historical Books, investigating the literature and major themes of the Historical Books with an emphasis on their ancient Near Eastern context. Through the study of representative primary texts, this course familiarizes students with the methods and issues of modern biblical scholarship. Attention is also paid to how the Catholic intellectual tradition engages with the Historical Books.

This course introduces students to the literature and major themes of the Torah with an emphasis on its ancient Near Eastern context. Through the study of representative primary texts, the course familiarizes students with methods and issues in the modern study of the Torah. Attention is also paid to how the Catholic intellectual tradition engages with the Torah.

The course will engage in a literary, historical, and theological study of the wisdom books of Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes (=Qoheleth), Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (=Ben Sira or Ecclesiasticus), focusing on their composition, structure, theology, liturgical usage, and implications for dialogue among Jews and Christians. In addition, it treats how Second Temple Judaism influences the development of the New Testament. Since some psalms (e.g. 1, 14, 37, 73, 91, 112, 119, and 128) are regarded as “wisdom psalms” due to their similarity with the themes of the main wisdom books, the course investigates the Book of Psalms with a focus on exegesis, theology and history.