University of Copenhagen Awards Honorary Doctorate to Prof. Dr. Heinrich Assel

Dean Prof. Dr. Jensen (Copenhagen) presents Prof. Dr. Heinrich Assel with the certificate for the honorary doctorate in the Ceremonial Hall of the University of Copenhagen, ©Nikolai Linares, 10 November 2023
Dean Prof. Dr. Jensen (Copenhagen) presents Prof. Dr. Heinrich Assel with the certificate for the honorary doctorate in the Ceremonial Hall of the University of Copenhagen, ©Nikolai Linares, 10 November 2023
Queen Margarethe II in conversation with the honoured professor, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Heinrich Assel, on the left Prof. Dr. Christine Svinth-Værge Põder, Head of the Department of Systematic Theology, Copenhagen, ©Nikolai Linares, 10 November 2023
Queen Margarethe II in conversation with the honoured professor, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Heinrich Assel, on the left Prof. Dr. Christine Svinth-Værge Põder, Head of the Department of Systematic Theology, Copenhagen, ©Nikolai Linares, 10 November 2023

The University of Copenhagen has awarded the honorary doctorate Doctor Theologiae Honoris Causa to Prof. Dr. Heinrich Assel from the University of Greifswald’s Faculty of Theology. The honour was awarded during the university’s annual anniversary ceremony in the Ceremonial Hall on 10 November 2023. In the presence of Queen Margarethe II of Denmark, the certificate was presented by Prof. Dr. Carsten Selch Jensen, Dean of the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Theology and the honorary doctorate was conferred by Prof. Dr. Henrik C. Wegener, Rector of the University of Copenhagen.

The Faculty of Theology in Copenhagen named the honouree’s academic achievements as the grounds for the bestowal of the great honour. Prof. Assel is recognised as an internationally renowned scholar, who masters and connects an unusually broad spectrum of fields in theological research. As a Protestant dogmatist and philosopher of religion, he has published works on the philosophy of religious language and the Jewish philosophy of the 20th century. Furthermore, he made important contributions to the ethics of medicine, to the history of modern theology, and to the history of reformation. He is co-editor of an international standard encyclopaedia at the interface between systematic theology and biblical studies.

One of Prof. Dr. Heinrich Assel’s outstanding publications is his three-volume “Elementare Christologie” (“Elementary Chistology”), published in 2020. With its hermeneutic approach that also takes context into account and its inclusion of Jewish perspectives, this major systematic work shall be important and indispensable for the future of theology. Elementare Christologie shall be considered a reference work for future theological concepts.

Prof. Dr. Heinrich Assel has maintained close ties to the Faculty of Theology at the University of Copenhagen since 2010, collaborating with researchers from the fields of dogmatics, church history and the philosophy of religion. Not only has he invited colleagues from Copenhagen to Greifswald, but he has also held guest lectures in Copenhagen and led a seminar for doctoral candidates at the Danish faculty. Assel was co-organiser of the International Congress “Reformatio Baltica: Cultural Effects of the Reformation in the Metropoles of the Baltic Sea Region” in Vilnius in 2015 and is the first editor of the congress volume.

Following the award ceremony, all of the six honorary doctors were invited to a reception by Queen Margarethe II of Denmark.

Further Information

University of Copenhagen


CV of

Prof. Dr. Heinrich Assel [de]



Contact at the University of Greifswald
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Heinrich Assel
Faculty of Theology
Chair of Systematic Theology
Am Rubenowplatz 2/3, 17489 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 3834 420 2503

asseluni-greifswaldde

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