Visiting Scholars

CSWR Senior Visiting Scholars, 2008-09

Chilkuri Vasantha Rao

Chilkuri Vasantha Rao, Senior Visiting Scholar during the spring 2009 semester, is a presbyter in the Medak Diocese of the Church of South India and Lecturer in the Department of Old Testament at Andhra Christian Theological College in Hyderabad, India. He received his PhD in 2004 from the University of Hamburg for his dissertation entitled "Ecological and Theological Aspects of Some Animal Laws in the Pentateuch," which continued his longstanding interest in ecology. Ordained in the Church of South India in 1989, Vasantha Rao is a member of the Academic and Working Committees of the Henry Martyn Institute International Center for Research, Interfaith Relations, and Reconciliation in Hyderabad; a board member for the Sattal Christian Ashram in Uttaranchal, India; and a panel member for the Telegu Old Testament Common Language Translation of the Bible Society of India.

While at Harvard Divinity School, he and John Carman will co-teach the course Christian-Hindu Interaction in Some South Indian Villages. In the course Professor Vasantha Rao covers the restudy he conducted last year of some village congregations in the Medak Diocese, and he and Professor Carman compare the present situation of these congregations with the results of the first study, conducted in 1959, in which Professor Carman also participated.

To contact Chilkuri Vasantha Rao via his faculty assistant, please refer to the faculty directory. For media inquiries or requests, please contact the Office of Communications.