After studying Catholic theology in Eichstätt, Rome and Tübingen (1986–1992), she was a speaker at the European Society for Catholic Theology from 1992 to 1996. From 1997 to 2000 she worked as an education officer for the Catholic German Women’s Association for the Mainz and Limburg diocesan associations.
After a family phase (2001–2006), she received her doctorate in theology in 2009 with her thesis “Auctoritas scripturae – Peter Abelard’s interpretation of scripture and understanding of theology with particular reference to the Expositio in Hexaemeron “. Her doctoral supervisor was Peter Hünermann.
The thesis was awarded the doctoral prize of the Catholic Theological Faculty of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in 2009 and has received high recognition in the professional world. [ 1 ] From 2007 to 2015 she was a research assistant at the Chair of Medieval and Modern Church History at the University of Bonn (chair holder Gisela Muschiol ).
After teaching at the universities of Frankfurt, Bonn, Cologne, Dresden and the KH Mainz, she has been a lecturer at the Theological-Pastoral Institute for part-time education of the dioceses of Fulda, Limburg, Mainz and Trier since 2016.
Her research focuses on the history of theology in the 12th century, the history of exegesis , especially in the 9th and 12th centuries, the Second Vatican Council and its reception, historical women’s and gender studies , the area of Catholic women and women’s movements, the topic of church buildings as places of remembrance , and the history of ecumenism . Based on autobiographical texts, she examines the systemic causes and theological legitimations of spiritual and sexual abuse of adult women in Christianity. [ 2 ]
Heyder has been chairwoman of the Theological Commission of the Catholic German Women’s Association eV, Cologne, since 2014. From 2018 to 2018 she was chairwoman of the association “Biblical Message Marc Chagall eV” in Mainz. Since 2018 she has been a member of the working group “Theology, Pastoral and Ecumenism” of the Central Committee of German Catholics , Department 1, and since 2021 also a member of the Central Committee.
She was a jury member for the Summer School “Werkstatt Wittenberg”: Student Designs ( Wüstenrot Foundation , Institute for Church Architecture and Contemporary Church Art , TU Kaiserslautern, TU Dresden) (2017), in the artist competition for the redesign of the interior of the Frauenfriedenskirche (2016/2017) and in the competition “Church Buildings and Their Future”. Design Prize of the Wüstenrot Foundation (2015). She is a member of the Görres Society , of AGENDA – Forum of Catholic Theologians and of the International Society for Theological Medieval Studies .
For the work Narrative as Resistance: Reports on spiritual and sexual abuse of adult women in the Catholic Church, Heyder, together with Barbara Haslbeck , Ute Leimgruber and Dorothee Sandherr-Klemp, will receive the Marga Bührig Prize 2021.
Source
Regina Heyder (Wikipedia.de)