Ralf van Bühren is Professor of Art History at the School of Church Communications at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce, Rome. His work is focused on sacred architecture and the visual arts of Christianity, including their implications for rhetoric, religious tourism and theology. In 1994, he obtained his PhD degree in Art History at the University of Cologne. Bühren also holds a doctorate in Theology (2006) from the Pontifical University of Santa Croce. From 2014 to 2022 he was consultant to the Pontifical Council for Culture.