Meet Our Founder
Alex R. Jaramillo, M.A.R, M.A.T.S.
Founder | Director | Researcher | Educational Instructor
Hello and thank you for visiting ICRTS! As the founder and director of ICRTS, it is my goal to help guide this institute to become a quality resource for cultural, religious, and theological studies. I also partake in the research and educational resource development conducted by ICRTS. Our goal is to be a hub where scholars, teachers, religious leaders, and other professionals can work together to cultivate healthy dialogue and awareness in our three main disciplines.
My Story
Growing up in a religious household has always stirred my curiosity about the metaphysical realities of life and how those realities affect our everyday lives. I was raised in a Christian home but had never considered myself a Christian until my conversion experience later in life. The first challenge to my Christian Sunday School upbringing came when I was 10 and 11 years old. My 5th and 6th-grade teachers had collaborated to teach our class Classical Greek Mythology. For those two school years, I was captivated by the stories of the Titans, Zeus, the pantheon of gods, and the demi-gods, and how their stories intertwined with human affairs and experience. As I entered my teen years, my curiosity expanded to other religious traditions and their respective mythohistorical backdrops.
As a young adult, my life was radically transformed through my Christian conversion experience, and I found my love for learning about other religions clashing with my newfound Christian faith (at the time, I could not see how my love for learning about other religious traditions would benefit my love for Christ and His church. Oh, how wrong I was!). Through circumstance, I entered the world of Christian Apologetics and began to learn how to think critically about theology, religion in general, and how the dynamics of these affect our cultural experiences and vice-versa.
Upon my conversion, I enrolled in the School of Ministry Institute (SMI) program that my church at the time offered. I completed SMI, earned a Biblical Teaching certificate, and decided that I wanted to take my education further. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in Christian Studies with an Emphasis in Philosophy, I went on to receive a Master of Arts in Theological Studies, and finally a Master of Arts in Religion.
After serving nearly 13 years as both a lay and a licensed & ordained minister, I reluctantly decided to resign from ministry. My resignation was due to several reasons, and although my resignation came with some hesitancy, it did allow me to pursue other endeavors to which I felt God was calling me; ICRTS is one of those endeavors. I love studying culture, religion, and theology! I also love to be a resource for others who share such passions. My desire is for ICRTS to be a leader in quality research and education in these areas that are so essential to human life.