Biography Narrative

Rev Jose Nandhikkara CMI, a Carmelite Priest, is the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram and Head of the Department of Philosophy at Christ University, Bangalore. He also serves as Director of the Centre for the Study of World Religions and Chief Editor of the Journal of Dharma. He also works in the fields of Comparative Religion and Religious Experience and promotes Faiths Seeking Harmony of Life and Fellowship in Religious Experience, through visits, workshops, lectures and conferences. In his interreligious work he is guided by the Vedic vision, “Let noble thoughts come from all sides” (Rgveda 1.89.1) and the motto, fides querens harmonium vitae – faith seeking harmony of life. He has an excellent academic record, with three Bachelor degrees in Philosophy, Geology, and Theology and an MA in Philosophy and Theology from Oxford University, as well as a Licentiate in Philosophy from Gregorian University, Rome. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from Warwick University, UK. His doctoral dissertation is titled Being Human from a Religious Point of View, after
Wittgenstein. Rev Nandhikkara has authored a book, Being Human after Wittgenstein: A Philosophical Anthropology and edited the compilation, Ethical Interface: Literature, Economics, Politics, Religion. He has also published twenty research articles in a number of national and international journals and edited compilations. He has attended various national and international conferences where he presented research papers on Philosophy and Religious Studies.

Interreligious Activities and Initiatives

FIRE – Fellowship In Religious Experience

Fellowship In Religious Experience is a project for groups of 10-20 university students for a period of three weeks to three months, devoted to inter-religious dialogue, offered at the Centre for the Study of World Religions (CSWR), Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, Bangalore, India, through a participative approach to the study of religion – lectures by scholars, discourses by believers, visits to places of religious importance, meals, observation of rituals, and participation in festivals – showing the uniqueness of each religion with similarities and differences with other traditions.