Nina S. Heereman, S.S.D.

Bio

Born and raised in Germany, Dr. Heereman was trained as a lawyer and completed the bar exam in Bavaria. She then discerned a vocation to serve the Church through the study and teaching of the Word of God. She studied theology in Frankfurt and Rome, earned an SSL from the Pontifical Biblical Institute (the Biblicum) in Rome, and an SSD and PhD from the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, Israel, in cotutelle with the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. She specialized in Old Testament studies, with particular focus on the Song of Songs — the subject of her monograph “Behold King Solomon on the Day of His Wedding!” (Peeters, 2021). Her scholarly work has appeared in leading European journals of biblical studies and theology, including Revue biblique, Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, and Communio. She also writes for a wider readership, most recently in Athirst for the Spirit: Biblical Wisdom for Desert Times (Emmaus Road, 2023). She is currently working on a commentary on the Books of Ruth and Esther for the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series. She has held visiting professorships at the Biblicum, the Collège des Bernardins in Paris, and the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California.

Dr. Heereman maintains an active media presence through her YouTube channels MiniKat and Caritas Christi, appears regularly on the German Catholic broadcasters EWTN Germany and Radio Horeb, and co-hosts the German-language ecumenical podcast Unter Heiden. She regularly leads retreats and spiritual formation programs internationally.

Conference/Workshop Presentation

“Thy Kingdom Come!” principal address at the “Annual Spring Thomistic Circles Conference. Our Father: Prayer and Theology”, in Washington DC, March 25, 2022.

“Finding Consolation in the Book of Revelation,” conference for Chapter of the Thomistic Institute at UC Berkley, CA, March 11, 2022.

“The Visitation”, a video meditation for the Virtual Catholic Conference on the Holy Rosary.

“The Sistine Chapel and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” a day of recollection for the Chancery of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, CA, December 8, 2021.

“From Mesopotamian Sacred Marriages to the Wedding of the Lamb,” an online conference given for a series of lectures on “The Mesopotamian Background of the Bible,” organized by Bible Eyes, The Patriarchate of Bagdad, Iraq.

Selected Publications

“Behold King Solomon on the Day of His Wedding!”: A Symbolic Diachronic Reading of Song 3:6-11 and 4:12–5:1 (BETL 320, Leuven, Peeters) 2021.

L’amour d’alliance. Lecture symbolique du Cantique des Cantiques, in Communio XLVII, janvier-février 2022, 29-43.

“Bei euch sei es nicht so!” in “Was Er euch sagt, das tut!” Kritische Beleuchtung des Synodalen Weges. C. Binninger et. al (Hrsg.), Regensburg, Verlag Friedrich Pustet 2021.

“Recuperating the Song of Songs as Religious Poetry. Building a Bridge from Composition to Canon” in P. van Hecke (ed.), The Song of Songs in Its Context: Word for Love, Love for Words (BETL 310, Leuven, Peeters, 2020).

“Moral ohne Jesus, Jesus ohne Moral? Jesus ist die Aufklärung über den Menschen” in Die Tagespost (Forum: Die Zukunft der Moral – die Moral der Zukunft), 24. Dezember 2020.

“‘Who is the Church?’ Part I. The Roots of the Church in the Old Testament” in: Pietre Vive 6/2018; Part II. The Roots of the Church in the New Testament,” in: Pietre Vive 7/2019.

“Where is Wisdom to be Found?” Rethinking the Song of Song’s Solomonic Setting, in ZAW 130 (2018).

“‘Behold King Solomon!’: Inner-Biblical Interpretation in Song 3:6-11” in A. Schellenberg – L. Schwienhorst-Schönberger (eds.), Interpreting the Song of Songs: Literal or Allegorical? (BTS, 26), Leuven, Peeters, 2016.