"Deus Caritas Est". Benedict XVI’s First Encyclical and Its Johannine Foundation in the Exegesis of St. Augustine
Abstract
The article examines the Johannine foundation of the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est. It shows how Benedict XVI drew heavily on the Augustinian exegesis of the Johannine literature (with a particular focus on the First Epistle of John). The analysis follows the three fundamental elements that the Pope identifies at the beginning of the document, comparing the texts of the two authors (St. Augustine and Benedict XVI): the lexical clarification of eros and agape, the interaction between the love of God and the love of neighbor, and finally the pneumatological foundation of love. Then, starting from this last element, the article proposes to interpret the second part of the Encyclical as a pneumatological ecclesiology that the Pope presented to the Church at the beginning of his pontificate.
Keywords:
love, charity, eros, agape, Holy Spirit, pneumatology, ecclesiology, Benedict XVI, Augustin of Hippo, Encyclical, Johannine exegesis, Johannine literatureReferences
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Theological Faculty of Northen Italy
Isacco Pagani holds a doctorate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome (2021). He is currently Assistant Professor of Biblical Greek and New Testament (Gospel and Johannine Literature) at the Major Seminary of the Diocese of Milan and the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy in Milan (Italy). He is a member of the Italian Biblical Association (ABI), the Italian Biblical Society (SBI), and the Lorenzo Valla Foundation. He has published his doctoral thesis “Si compia la Scrittura”: I rimandi al compimento della Scrittura pronunciati da Gesù in Gv 13–17 (Analecta Biblica 232; Rome: G&B Press 2021). His most recent publication is “Ancient and New: A Dialogue between Contemporary and Patristic Exegesis on the Scriptural Fulfillment Statements in the Johannine Farewell Discourse”, The Transcendent Mystery of God’s Word. A Critical Synthesis of Antioch and Alexandria (edited by John W. Martens and Paul V. Niskanen; Minnesota, MN: Saint Paul Seminary Press 2024) 140–161. He is also one of the reviewers of the Italian Revised Ecumenical Literary Translation (TLER) of the New Testament. He is interested in Johannine literature (especially in applying cultural memory studies).
https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1180-9566
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