Dr. Matthew J. Ramage, PhD

About Dr. Matthew J. Ramage, PhD

Dr. Matthew Ramage is associate professor of theology at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. He earned his MA from Franciscan University and his PhD from Ave Maria University. He is author of the book Dark Passages of the Bible: Engaging Scripture with Benedict XVI and Thomas Aquinas (2013, CUA Press).

Divorce, Remarriage, and “Discerning the Body”

On Pope Francis’ Interpretation of 1 Cor 11:27-34 in Amoris Laetitia

Introduction Over the past year since its release, Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (hereafter AL), has elicited a great deal of consternation among the faithful of the Catholic Church. The controversy surrounding the d … [Read more...]

Integral Ecology and the Ecological Virtues in Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’

Introduction Several weeks ago, I made a conscious decision to refrain from reading too much secondary literature on Pope Francis’s impending encyclical, Laudato Si’. And by noon on the day of its release, I was almost depressed. A flood of … [Read more...]

How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian

The Problem of Divine Violence as Considered in Recent Curial Documents

Introduction If God exists, he is not the God of the Christian Bible. At least this is the conclusion drawn by many prominent authors and cultural commentators in our society today. The rise of agnosticism and atheism in contemporary … [Read more...]

Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology of Beauty and the New Evangelization

“I have often affirmed my conviction that the true apology of Christian faith, the most convincing demonstration of its truth…are the saints and the beauty that the faith has generated.”[1. Joseph Ratzinger, “The Feeling of Things, the Conte … [Read more...]

Benedict XVI on Freedom in Obedience to the Truth: A Key for the New Evangelization

... the more fundamental task ... is to form human hearts, beginning with those who have already been evangelized and need to be “newly evangelized,” those who know something already, but are not living it; those who are showing up in the pe … [Read more...]

Jesus’ Infancy through the Eyes of Benedict XVI

As Benedict’s entire Jesus of Nazareth trilogy masterfully illustrates, the answer lies in carefully balanced exegesis that takes the historicity of the Gospels seriously, while also attending to the particularities of their unique literary … [Read more...]