For years, Dartmouth resident Mike Hickey taught courses at Florida Gulf Coast University going over biblical themes and Catholic social teaching — a doctrine on social justice and the common good in society.

A lot of that teaching was done at the school’s Renaissance Academy, where Hickey noted that most students attending his classes were on the older side.

“It leans itself to seniors primarily, and there’s plenty of seniors in Florida,” he laughed. 

Wanting to spread the life lessons found in faith to a wider audience, Hickey got to writing his own books based on those very classes. Since then, he’s written philosophical books like “Get Goodness: Virtue Is The Power To Do Good” and self-published “Get Wisdom,” which anthologizes works from the Western and Eastern sects of Catholicism.

Now, the Dartmouth author is celebrating the publication of his seventh book, “Themes from the Gospel of John” — which was released in June.

“It’s a very difficult gospel to understand,” Hickey said. “If you were to read it simply from beginning to end, you wouldn’t have as much of a feel for that gospel as you would from following the themes.”

This particular gospel is especially personal to Hickey. 

In the first page of the book, the Dartmouth resident gives an acknowledgement to one of his theological mentors, the late Dan Harrington — the former head of biblical studies at Hickey’s alma mater, Boston College.

“He really laid the groundwork to structure the book in terms of doing it in themes,” Hickey said. “My knowledge of the Bible is pretty good, but it didn’t hold a candle to him.”

Prevalent themes Hickey explores include seeing and believing the Logos Prologue, Book of Signs, Glory, and The Epilogue. There are also “sub themes” such as faith and believing, knowing and unknowing, light and darkness, life and death, love, and truth.

“All of this is actually what Dan Harrington had taught me at a course at Boston College,” Hickey noted.

Despite being written thousands of years ago, Hickey said the Gospel of John still has a lot of relevance today. He added that it “tries to give an understanding of how to live as a person in the world.” 

“This is focused on a different approach to the world,” he said. “It’s about not just living as a successful person, but as a person of virtue.”

Hickey said he researches and writes on Christian philosophy due to interest, and that he doesn’t “earn virtually any money from the books.”

“Themes from the Gospel of John” is published by Hamilton Books and is available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.