is professor for systematic theology and philosophy of religions at the Department of Theology at the University of Rostock. He is director of the Institute for Image Theory (ifi) at the University of Rostock as well as chairman of the Society for Interdisciplinary Image Studies (GIB) and speaker of the DFG Research Training Group 1887: »Deutungsmacht: Religion und belief systems in Deutungsmachtkonflikten«. His field of research covers Christology, hermeneutics, religion philosophy, and image theory.