HTI Alumni

Carmelo Santos-Rolón

Carmelo Santos-Rolón

Director for Theological Diversity and Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)

Field of Study: Theology

Carmelo Santos- Rolón was born in Puerto Rico and grew up by the beach across the bay from San Juan, in a small town called Catano. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Rico, where he specialized in Organo-metalic synthesis. For his seminary and Ph.D. work he chose the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago because they had the Zygon Center for Religion and Science as well as an emphasis on Hispanic Ministries. His academic interests are in the intersection of science (specifically brain and cognitive science) and theology (particularly Liberation and Postcolonial theologies with an emphasis on Pneumatology and Theological Anthropology). For the last five years he has taught undergraduates at Georgetown University the course “God & the Brain.” He is fundamentally interested in the question of how concrete religious practices, symbols and narratives actually shape the ways our brains (and nervous system in general) and how they can facilitate the decolonization of colonized people’s imaginaries.

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