Pursuit of Wisdom

In a culture that speaks constantly about love but often struggles to define it, Dr. Maria Fedoryka is asking a deeper question: What is love? 

In her new The Pursuit of Wisdom course, “The Philosophy of Love”, Dr. Maria Fedoryka, associate professor of philosophy at Ave Maria University, invites students to consider this profound question and discover love’s central place in the Christian understanding of God, creation, and the human person. 

“We use the word ‘love’ constantly, but Christianity gives us a radically different understanding of what love is,” Fedoryka said. “The Incarnation reveals that love is not simply desire or emotion. It is the gift of oneself for the good of another.”  

Drawing on St. John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body” and the writings of St. Edith Stein, Fedoryka presents creation as an act of love and human existence as a gift, not one that is arbitrary or meaningless but held in the embrace of a good God. 

Perhaps most personally, Fedoryka explores how being loved awakens us to our own goodness, how wounds in love can affect our ability to give and receive love, and how compassion can help bring healing to unresolved suffering. Ultimately, the course points toward the vocation of every person: to make a gift of oneself and to build communities shaped by love. 

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