As Professor of New Testament Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., sees it, the School of Theology and Ministry has “an embarrassment of riches” when it comes to the faculty.

“What’s outstanding about this school is the wide variety of interest and expertise on the part of the faculty,” he says. “It would be hard for a student not to find a faculty member with great expertise and interests in a particular field. It’s rather overwhelming, the riches that are present here.”

Harrington, who joined the faculty of the former Weston Jesuit School of Theology in 1972, attributes the faculty’s depth both to the School’s collaboration with the theology department at Boston College and to the 2008 merger of Weston and the Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry. “One area we were weak in at Weston was practical theology,” he notes. “Now we have partners with great experience in practical theology, religious education, and pastoral counseling. Together, we have a very strong faculty that covers the whole theological spectrum.”

The author of more than 40 books and hundreds of articles, Harrington is a preeminent scholar of Scripture who serves as the editor of New Testament Abstracts, an annual publication sponsored by Boston College.

“Every year for Abstracts we summarize more than 2,000 articles and 800 books in languages ranging from French, German, and English to Swedish, Greek, and Polish,” says Harrington. “The publication circulates all over the world, to libraries as well as individual scholars. All the journals and books we receive go to the library here, so BC has one of the best New Testament libraries in the world.”

For all his scholarly expertise, Harrington is also active in day-to-day ministry, celebrating Mass every Sunday in two Boston-area parishes. “The School of Theology and Ministry assumes that professors and students are interested in bridging the gap between objective academic scholarship and its application into people’s lives,” he says. “Preaching every Sunday gives me the opportunity to explain the great insights of biblical texts to people without a theological education. I’ve found that it’s been very important to the way I teach.”