Rowland returns frequently to the theological insights of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI, to whose thought she is deeply indebted. Drawing upon the Augustinian and Thomist traditions of political theology, she offers a trenchant theological critique of liberalism in all its forms, with attention to our modern attraction to false utopias and accommodationist impulses.
The nine essays in this volume engage such perennial topics as the place of natural law, the theological status of the “world,” and the nature of true humanism, along with timely topics such as the retrieval of the sources of Catholic resistance to Communism and what is now commonly called cultural Marxism. Rowland’s inimitable voice, keen wit, and penetrating insight into the distinctiveness of Catholic truth make this book a landmark volume as the Church today revisits anew its relationship to the world.
Professor Tracey Rowland holds two doctorates in theology—the civil Ph.D. from the Divinity School of Cambridge University—and the pontifical S.T.D. from the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Rome. From 2001-2017 she was the Dean of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne. She currently holds the St. John Paul II Chair of Theology at the University of Notre Dame (Australia). In 2010 she was awarded the Archbishop Michael J. Miller Award by the University of St. Thomas in Houston for the promotion of faith and culture. In 2011 she was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and in 2014 she was appointed to the International Theological Commission. Her previous books are Culture and the Thomist Tradition, Ratzinger’s Faith, Benedict XVI: A Guide for the Perplexed, and Catholic Theology.