Matthew Philipp Whelan

Matthew Philipp Whelan is associate research professor of theology at Duke Divinity School. His research and teaching focus on Catholic social teaching, Latin American and liberation theologies, and ecological theology and ethics.

Dr. Whelan is the author of the award-winning Blood in the Fields: Óscar Romero, Catholic Social Teaching, and Land Reform (Catholic University of America Press, 2020). The book explores Romero’s advocacy for just land distribution—rooted in the Christian tradition and Catholic social teaching—as a lens for understanding his witness and that of contemporary land and environmental defenders. It has just been translated into Spanish. His second book, Christianity and Agroecology (Cambridge University Press, 2025), draws on the transdisciplinary field of agroecology to clarify and deepen Catholic social teaching’s natural law ethic. He is currently co-authoring (with Natalie Carnes) a third book project, Why This Waste? Poverty, Luxury, and Witness in the Christian Tradition, which examines how Christians should navigate art and excess in a world in need. Finally, in addition to these, he is co-editing (with David Días Arias, Gema Santamaría, and Kevin Coleman) the volume Nuevas dimensiones políticas y geopolíticas del cristianismo y la derecha política en las Américas, which examines the influence of Christianity upon the transnational far right in the Américas.

Dr. Whelan’s articles have appeared in Modern Theology, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, International Journal of Systematic Theology, Journal of Catholic Social Thought, Journal of Moral Theology, Communio, Nova et Vetera, Crosscurrents, among other venues.