Ralf van Bühren is a German art historian, architectural historian, church historian, and theologian. He is professor of art history at the School of Church Communications at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome, and also lecturing at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana. His research and teaching specialize on the History of Christian Art and Architecture in general, as well as on Visual Studies, biblical iconography, on the rhetorics and visual communication of sacred art, on the liturgical space after the Second Council of Nicaea (787), the Council of Trent (1545‒1563) and the Vatican Council II (1962‒1965), on Religious Tourism, and on the pastoral concern for contemporary artists in particular.