Professor Tracey Rowland

St John Paul II Chair of Theology
ODM (Poland), BA(Hons), LLB (Qld); B.Litt, MA. Grad. Dip. Mod. Lang. (Melb), PhD (Cantab), STL, STD (Lateran), Dip. Ed. Stud. (London).

Email: tracey.rowland@nd.edu.au

  • Biography

    Professor Rowland's primary degrees were in law and government from the University of Queensland. She then completed a Bachelor of Letters in Philosophy from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Arts degree in political philosophy, also from the University of Melbourne, along with a Graduate Diploma in German language, and the Goethe Institute's Certificate of German as a foreign language.  She then won a Commonwealth Scholarship to Cambridge University where she wrote her doctoral dissertation on twentieth century theological engagements with the idea of culture, with reference to the philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre and the theology of Henri de Lubac and Joseph Ratzinger. In 2001 she was appointed the Dean of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family in Melbourne, a position she held until 2017.  During this period she also completed the pontifical degrees, a Licentiate in Sacred Theology and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology, both from the Lateran.

    She has published eight books: Culture and the Thomist Tradition (London: Routledge, 2003), Ratzinger's Faith: The Theology of Benedict XI (Oxford University Press, 2008), Benedict XVI: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Bloomsbury, 2010),Catholic Theology (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), The Culture of the Incarnation: Essays in Catholic Theology (Steubenville: Emmaus Academic, 2017), Portraits of Spiritual Nobility (New York: Angelico, 2019) Beyond Kant and Nietzsche: The Munich Defence of Christian Humanism (London: Bloomsbury, 2021) and Despre Permanenta Adevărului şi alte eseuri (Bihor: Ratio et Revelatio, 2021). The latter is a collection of her essays first published in the English language edition of Communio: International Catholic Review and translated into Romanian.  She has also edited the collection Anglican Patrimony in Catholic Communion (London: Bloomsbury, 2021) and co-edited Chiesa Sotto Accusa (Cantagalli, 2020) with Don Livio Melina, also published in Spanish as La Iglesia en el Banquillo (Madrid: Didaskalos, 2021). Most recently she has co-edited Healing Fractures in Contemporary Theology with Peter John McGregor from the Catholic Institute of Sydney. She is a member of the editorial board of Communio: International Catholic Review and was appointed to the 9th International Theological Commission in 2014. In 2009 she was awarded the Archbishop Michael J Miller Award for the Promotion of Faith and Culture by the University of St. Thomas in Houston and in 2010 she was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. In 2020 she won the Ratzinger Prize for theology. In 2023 she was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of the Social Sciences.

    She has published over 150 articles in all and is the English sub-editor of the forthcoming multilingual Ratzinger Lexikon.

  • Teaching areas

    Theological Anthropology, Political Philosophy (including Catholic, Marxist and Liberal), Philosophy and Theology of Culture, (including modern and post-modern culture), German Catholic thought in the twentieth century (including the theology of Joseph Ratzinger) and theories of secularisation.

  • Research expertise and supervision

    Professor Rowland has successfully supervised the work of 9 doctoral students and numerous Masters and Honours level projects.  Her research expertise is in the fields of theological anthropology, political philosophy, cultural theory and German Catholic thought in the twentieth century, especially the theology of Joseph Ratzinger.

  • Books

    • Culture and the Thomist Tradition: after Vatican II (London: Routledge, 2003).
    • Ratzinger’s Faith:/The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI (Oxford University Press, 2008). This has been translated and published in Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.
    • Benedict XVI: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Bloomsbury, 2010).  This has been translated and published in Spanish.
    • Catholic Theology (London: Bloomsbury, 2017).
    • The Culture of the Incarnation: Essays in Catholic Theology (Steubenville: Emmaus Academic, 2017).
    • Portraits of Spiritual Nobility (New York: Angelico Press, 2019).
    • Beyond Kant and Nietzsche: The Munich Defence of Christian Humanism (London: Bloomsbury, 2021).
    • Despre Permanenta Adevărului şi alte eseuri (Bihor: Ratio et Revelatio, 2021).

    Books edited

    • Ratzinger y los filόsofos, co-edited with Alejandro Sada and Rudy Albino de Assunção (Madrid: Ediciones Encuentro, 2023).
    • Peter John McGregor and Tracey Rowland, Healing Fractures in Contempoary Theology (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade, 2021).
    • Livio Melina and Tracey Rowland (eds), Chiesa sotto accusa: Un comment agli Appunti di Benedetto XVI (Siena: Cantagalli, 2020) (Italian version) and La eglesia en el banquillo: Uncomentario a los “Apuntes” de Benedicto XVI (Spanish version).
    • Tracey Rowland (ed), The Anglican Patrimony in Catholic Communion (London: Bloomsbury, 2021).

  • Book chapters

    • ‘Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI on Love and Sexuality’, in Beyond Secular Faith: Philosophy, Economics, Politics and Literature, edited by Mátyás Szalay (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2023), 14-24.
    • ‘Christology and Constitutionalism’ in Christianity and Constitutionalism, edited by Nicholas Aroney and Ian Leigh (Oxford University Press, 2022): 388-410.
    • ‘On Development of Doctrine: A Via Media between Intellectualism and Historicism’ in Juan R. Vélez (ed); A Guide to John Henry Newman: His Life and Thought (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2022), 352-373.
    • ‘The Case Against the Marriage of Natural Law and Natural Rights’, The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights, Tom Angier, etl. Al. (eds); Cambridge University Press, 2022).
    • “Catholicism and Ecumenism” in The Edinburgh Critical History of Twentieth Century Christian Theology, Philip Ziegler (editor), (Edinburgh University Press, 2022): 83-103.
    • ‘Dogmatic and Pastoral Theology’ in Healing Fractures in Contemporary Theology co-edited by Peter John McGregor and Tracey Rowland (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2022): 189-206.
    • ‘Children of the Second Syllable: Modernity in the Theo-Poetics of James McAuley’, Published in the Festschrift for Pope Benedict’s 95th birthday, edited by Frederico Lombardi et. al; (Rome: Editrice Vaticana, 2022): 263-286.
    • ‘Theological Anthropology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium’, in Theological Anthropology at the Beginning of the Third Millennium edited by Kevin Wagner et.al; (Eugene: Cascade publications, 2022): 1-22.
    • Tracey Rowland, ‘What Happened in the Church and the World in 1968?’, in Thomas V Gourlay and Daniel Matthys (eds), 1968 Culture and Counterculture: A Catholic Critique (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2020): 1-22.
    • ‘Un Antidoto al Male: Un Amore che Genera Amore’, in Livio Melina and Tracey Rowland (eds), Chiesa sotto accusa: Un comment agli Appunti di Benedetto XVI (Siena: Cantagalli, 2020): 82-96.
    • ‘Ecclesiology at the Beginning of the new Millennium’, in ‘Ecclesiology at the Beginning of the new Millennium’, Kevin Wagner, Peter J McGregor and Isabelle Naumann (eds) (Cascade: 2020).
    • 'Foreword to The Theology of Benedict XVI: A Protestant Appreciation’, edited by Tim Perry (Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2019).
    • ‘Joseph Ratzinger and Radical Orthodoxy’ in Joseph Ratzinger and the Healing of the Reformation-Era Divisions’ co-edited by Matthew Levering and Emery de Gaal, Emmaus Publishing, 2019.
    • ‘Natural Law in Catholic Christianity’, in the Cambridge Companion to Natural Law Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
    • “The Queenship of Our Lady in the Catholic Social Imagination”, Do Whatever He Tells You: Marian Spirituality in the Faith and Life of Catholic Christians, edited by John Vayalilkarottu (Greyfriars Publications, Kerala, India, 2018): 52-60.
    • “Catholic Education as a Theological Project”, in Reclaiming the Piazza II: Catholic Education and the New Evangelisation (London, Gracewing, 2017): 13-31.
    • 'Henri de Lubac's Engagements with Neo-Scholasticism of the Strict Observance', in The Companion to Henri de Lubac, edited by Jordan Hillebert (London: T & T Clark, 2017).
    • 'Vatican II, John Paul II and Post-conciliar Theology', in Called to be Children of God: The Catholic Theology of Human Deification edited by David Meconi and Carl E Olson (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2016): 245-263.
    • 'The Culture Wars: Saint Pope John Paul II- Pope of the Civilisation of Love', in God and Eros: The Ethos of the Nuptial Mystery (Eugene: Cascade, 2015): 19-38.
    • 'From Correlationism to Trinitarian Christocentrism: Receiving the Council in the Church in Australia', in The Great Grace: Receiving Vatican II Today edited by Nigel Zimmermann, (London: Bloomsbury, 2015): 57-75.
    • 'Christ, Culture and the New Evangelisation' in The New Evangelisation: Faith, People, Context and Practice, Paul Grogan and Kirsteen Kim (eds), (London: Bloomsbury, 2015): 45-65.
    • 'The Role of Natural Law and Natural Right in the Search for a Universal Ethic' in Searching for a Universal Ethics: Multidisciplinary, Ecumenical, and Interfaith Responses to the Catholic Natural Law Tradition, edited by John Berkman and William C Mattison III (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014): 156-167.
    • 'How Does Spirituality Supply Theological Study with the Correct Method?' in Entering into the Mind of Christ: The True Nature of Theology, edited by James Keating (Creighton University: Institute for Priestly Formation, 2014): 23-47.
    • 'Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI on Spiritual Capital and Human Ecology' in Martin Laverty and Liz Callaghan (eds), Exploring the Connections: Catholic Social Teaching and Social Determinants of Health (Melbourne: Connor Court, 2014): 22-30.
    • 'The Usus Antiquior and the New Evangelisation', in Sacred Liturgy: The Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2014): 115-139.
    • 'Joseph Ratzinger and the Hermeneutic of Continuity' in The Hermeneutics of Tradition: Explorations and Examinations edited by Craig Hovey and Cyrus P Olsen (eds) (Cascade: Eugene, 2014): 193-226.
    • 'Natural Rights: A Schallian Guide for the Perplexed', in Jerusalem, Athens and Rome: Essays in Honour of James V Schall SJ edited by Marc Guerra (South Bend, Indiana: St. Augustine's Press, 2013): 235-261.
    • Teologiens Bruckner – den telogiske arven etter Joseph Ratzinger/Benedikt XVI, Katolsk Årsskrift for Religion og Samfunn (edited by Staale Johannes Kristiansen (St Olaf Verlag: Oslo, 2013): 75-85.
    • 'Catholic Theology in the Twentieth Century' in Key Theological Thinkers: From Modern to Postmodern, edited by Staale Johannes Kristiansen, et. al: (Ashgate, 2013): 37-53.
    • 'Tradition' in The Oxford Handbook on Theology and Modern European Thought, edited by Nicholas Adams et. al; (Oxford University Press, 2013): 277-301.
    • Joseph Ratzinger's Friendship with Augustine, Bonaventure and Aquinas', Logos et Musica: In Honorem Summi Romani Pontificis Benedicti XVI E. Szczurko, et.al. (eds), (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2013): 163-179.
    • 'La Mediazione della Tradizione All'Interno Dalla Famiglia', in Livio Melina et. al. (eds); Famiglia e nuova evangelizzazione: la chiave dell'annuncio (Siena: Cantagalu, 2012): 123-132.
    • 'Globalisation, Postmodern Theories of Culture and the Trinity', Oxford Handbook on the Trinity (Oxford University Press, 2010): 586-600.
      'A Tale of a Duck-Billed Platypus called Benedict and his Gold and Red Crayons' in The Global Crisis of Capitalism: "Caritas in Veritate" and the Future of Political Economy, Adrian Pabst (ed), (Cascade Books, 2011): 71-89.
    • 'Reason has a Wax Nose: Responses to Ratzinger's Faith', in The Grandeur of Reason: Religion, Tradition and Universalism edited by Conor Cunningham and Peter Candler (London: SCM Press, 2010): 345-362.
    • 'Lady Margaret Beaufort' in English Catholic Heroines, Joanna Bogle (ed), (Leominster: Gracewing, 2009): 54-64.
      'Theology and Culture in the work of David L Schindler', in Being Holy in the World: Theology and Culture in the Thought of David L Schindler, (Eerdmans, 2010): 55-89.
    • 'A Fragile Icon of God's Love: Love between Man and Woman', Proceedings of the Moral Theology conference titled Il Logos dell'Agape, Pontificia Universitá Lateranense, Rome, November 22-26, 2007. Published in Italian as 'Una Fragile Icona: L'Amore Tra Uomo e Donna', in Il Logos dell' Agape, Pontificia Universitá Lateranense, Rome, 2008: 89-98.
    • 'A Catholic Appropriation of Romantic Themes', in How Hans Urs von Balthasar Changed my Mind, edited by Rodney Howsare (New York: Herder and Herder, 2008): 191-209.
    • 'John Paul II and Human Dignity', in John Paul II: Legacy and Witness, edited by Robert Gascoigne, (Sydney: St. Paul's, 2007): 54-60.
      'Reflections on the Democratisation of Intimacy', Proceedings of the Conference, La Famiglia Cristiana per le Vita del Mondo' of the Pontificia Università Lateranense, Rome, 20-24, August, 2007: 257-267.
    • MacIntyre', Faith & Reason: Friends or Foes in the New Millennium (ATF Press: Adelaide), Ramsay, H & Fisher, A (eds), 2004: 336-364.
      'The Church in Oceania', Blackwell's Companion to Catholicism (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007): 221-235.

  • Journal articles and proceedings

    • 'Between the Theory and the Praxis of the Synodal Process', The Thomist, April, 2023
    • 'Joseph Ratzinger and the Idea of Europe’, New Polity: A Journal of Post Liberal Thought (Winter, 2023): 39-51.
    • 'From Extrinsicism to a World that Denies both Nature and Grace: A Polyphonic Analysis of Secularism’, in Communio: International Catholic Review, (Winter, 2022), 647-666.
    • ‘Truth Couplets in the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger’, Studium: Filosofía y Teología. Vol. XXV 50 (2022) 21—45.
    • ‘The “Cathedral” of Catholic Theology’, Studia Nauk Teologicznych, Tom 17 (2022): 1-16.
    • ‘Joseph Ratzinger über die Zeitlosigkeit der Wahrheit und die Hinduisierung des Glaubens’ in Mittelungen Institut Papst Benedikt XVI, Vol. 14 (2021): 31-48.
    • 'Ryszard Legutko's Critique of Economic Rationalism' Political Theory Newsletter 6 (4, December, 1994): 117-125.
    • 'Contemporary Central European Reflections on Civic Virtue,' History of European Ideas 21 (4, 1995): 505-513. Abstract published in the Documentation Politique Internationale and The Philosopher's Index.
    • 'The Political Values of the Public Conception in the work of John Rawls', University of Queensland Law Journal 18 (2, 1995): 342-350.
    • 'The Liberal Doctrine of State Neutrality: A Taxonomy,' University of Notre Dame Law Review 2 (December, 2000): 53-66.
    • 'The Authority of 'Experts' and the Ethos of Modern Institutions,' Communio: International Catholic Review (Winter, 2002): 746-765.
    • Divine Gifts to the Secular Desert: John Milbank's Being Reconciled, Reviews in Religion and Theology (Basil Blackwell: Oxford), Vol 11 (2), April, 2004: 182-188.
    • 'Response to Burrell, Cessario, Chapp, Lamb and Murphy' Nova et Vetera, Vol 3 (1), Winter 2005: 179-201.
    • 'The Augustinian Turn in Catholic Moral Thought', The Australasian Catholic Record, Vol. 83(2), April, 2006: 247-256.
    • 'Variations on the Theme of Christian Hope in the work of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI', Communio: International Catholic Review 35 (Summer, 2008): 200-220.
    • 'Natural Law: From Neo-Scholasticism to Nuptial Mysticism', Communio: International Catholic Review, 35 (Fall, 2008): 374-396.
    • 'Review Essay on Aquinas, Ethics and Philosophy of Religion: Metaphysics and Practice by Thomas Hibbs', Nova et Vetera 7:1 (2009): 284-289.
    • 'Response to Minlib Dahll', Conversations in Religion and Theology 7:2 (2009): 178-183.
    • 'Augustinian and Thomist Engagements with the World', American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 83(3), (2009).
    • 'The Contribution of the Polish Intelligentsia to the Breakthrough of 1989', Humanities Research, 2010.
    • 'The Crisis and Hope of Catechesis in Australia', Wspołczesna Katecheza: Kryzysy I Nadzieja, Opolska Biblioteka Teologiczna, 119, (Opole, 2010): 221-223.
    • 'El Logos Precede Al Ethos', Humanitas Number 64, (Primavera, 2011): 777-779.
    • 'Love and Society', Anthropotes, Vol. xxvii/1, (2011): 139-151.
    • 'Hermeneutyka reform według Josepha Ratzingera', Ethos, 100 (2012): 205-223.
    • 'Humus de la Cultura Cristiana', Humanitas No. 67, (Invierno 2012): 422-434.
    • 'Generation and the Sacramental Vision of Love', Anthropotes, XXVIII (2012): 47-57.
    • 'The Wars of Love: On Fergus Kerr's Twentieth Century Catholic Theologians', Josephinum Journal of Theology, 18 (1), (Spring, 2011): 191-199.
    • 'The World in the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI', Journal of Moral Theology, Vol. 2, Number 2, June, (2013): 109-133.
    • 'Chrystus w centrum', Znak, Number 694, Marzec, (2013): 14-24.
    • 'Benedict XVI in the World of European Letters: a Very German Conversation', The Newman Rambler: Journal of the Newman Fellowship of McGill University, 2012.
    • Newman Rambler: Journal of the Newman Fellowship of McGill University, 2012: 'The Elephants at the Synod: Logos, Ethos and Sacramentality', co-authored with Conor Sweeney, Anthropotes, XXX, 2, (2014): 491-517.
    • 'Catholic Education and the Bureaucratic Usurpation of Grace', Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought Vol. 4 (1) (2014): 1-18.
    • 'Feminism from the Perspective of Catholic Theology', Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought Vol. 5 (1) (2015): 1-16.
    • ‘Joseph Ratzinger on the Timelessness of Truth',  Communio: International Catholic Review (Summer, 2017): 242-265.
    • ‘There is another Country’ contribution to the Milbank & Pabst Symposium on the book The Politics of Virtue, Nova et Vetera, Fall 2018, Vol. 16 (4): 1337-1353.
    • ‘Reflections from Romano Guardini on Being “Lost in Chaos”’, Wrocław Theological Review, 27 (2019), 2: 113-119.
    • ‘Gnoseological Concupiscence and the Fault-Lines in Post-Conciliar Theology’, Nova et Vetera, Vol. 18 (3) (2020): 776-790.
    • ‘Joseph Ratzinger as Doctor of Incarnate Beauty’, Church, Communication and Culture, Vol. 5 (2) (2020): 235-247.
    • “La Idea de Universidad de San John Henry Newman: un Alma Mater, No una Fundicion, un Molde O Rueda de Molino”, Persona y Cultura 17 (2020): 125-138
    • 'Joseph Ratzinger's Trinitarian Theology of Culture', Communio: International Catholic Review (Summer, 2021).
    • 'Between the Theory and the Praxis of the Synodal Process', The Thomist, April, 2023

  • Conference papers

    Since 2007 all conference papers have been published, see above.

  • Professional affiliations

    • Member, Cambridge Society of Australia
    • Member, Editorial Board, Communio: International Catholic Review, North American edition.
    • Member, British Council Alumni Association (Australia)
    • Dame, Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
    • Dame, Order of St John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta

  • Community engagement

    • Director, Mary Glowrey Trust.
    • Member, Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy.

  • Awards

    • Ratzinger Prize, 2020
    • Archbishop Michael J Miller Award for the Promotion of Faith and Culture, University of St. Thomas, Houston.
    • Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.