Since its establishment in 2002, Prof. Dr. Richard Heinzmann has played a decisive role in shaping the programmatic principles and the developments of the Eugen Biser Foundation.

As a Professor for Christian Philosophy and Theological Propaedeutics and Co-Chair of the Martin-Grabmann-Research Institute for Medieval Theology and Philosophy at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (until his retirement in 2002), for many years he was closely connected with Eugen Biser, both as a university colleague and by virtue of his area of expertise. The successful television broadcasts of dialogues between the two scholars, later published in book form as Theologie der Zukunft (2005) and Mensch und Spiritualität (2010) are living proof of this close association.

Richard Heinzmann's own scholarship is focussed on the theology and philosophy of the Middle Ages. He compiled the findings of a series of specialised studies in two fundamental works that rank among the standard introductory literature in academic studies: Philosophie des Mittelalters (3rd ed. 2008, translated into Spanish, Czech and Polish), and Thomas von Aquin. Eine Einführung in sein Denken mit ausgewählten lateinisch-deutschen Texten (1994). As his studies demonstrate, the foundations of key elements of the modern selfunderstanding of humankind were laid in the Christian thought of the Middle Ages: mind-body unity, personality and hence freedom of conscience and freedom of religion.
Richard Heinzmann's work in the Eugen Biser Foundation meets the concern of reemphasising these fundamental Christian values in the context of the conditions of the modern day and age. In 2010, he was presented with the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of his manifold accomplishments on behalf of scholarship and society. In 2015, Richard Heinzmann received the Meckatzer Philosophy Award for his contributions to dialogue between Christianity and Islam.

» Publications – books, articles and lectures – by Prof. Dr. Richard Heinzmann (in German language)