Michael Seewald
Professor of Dogmatics and History of Dogma
Michael Seewald studied Catholic theology, philosophy, and political science in Tübingen, Pune (India), and Frankfurt am Main. He completed his doctorate and his habilitation at LMU Munich in 2011 and 2015 respectively. Since 2017, he has held the Chair of Dogmatics and History of Dogma at the University of Münster. Since 2024, he has been a Permanent Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
During his fellowship, Michael Seewald will examine the changing attitude of U.S. American Catholicism towards a liberal social order. He explores the question of whether theology has the power to shape the church and society, or whether it is merely a variable that depends on political convictions and adapts to changing ideological forms.
Selected Awards
2025 | Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, DFG
2017 | Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize, DFG and Federal Ministry of Education and Research
2016 | Karl Rahner-Preis, Karl Rahner-Stiftung and University of Innsbruck
Selected Publications
2023 | Theories of Doctrinal Development in the Catholic Church, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2022 | Catholic Perspectives on Reform, New York: Paulist Press.
2019 | “The Death Penalty, Church Teaching and the Development of Dogma: Reflections on Pope Francis’ Change to the Catechism,” Concilium – International Journal of Theology, 129–143.