CAAC: About the Director
Dr. David C. Chao
Director of the Center for Asian American Christianity
Dr. David C. Chao is the Director of the Center for Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he teaches courses and leads programs in Asian American theology and ministry. His research focuses on the faith and practice of ordinary Asian Christians in diasporic contexts, the intersection of Christian doctrine and liberation, and the theological contributions of Karl Barth. Chao also examines the convergence and divergence of Protestant and Catholic dogmatics and explores the role of Christian doctrine in addressing contemporary social and political challenges.
He holds a BA from Yale University, an MDiv from Regent College (Vancouver), and both a ThM and PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. His forthcoming book, Concursus and Concept Use in Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Providence, is under contract with Routledge. He also has a forthcoming book with Wiley Blackwell on Asian American theology.
As a prominent voice in the study of Asian American religious life and politics, Chao is the principal investigator for multiple grants related to Asian American theology and communities. He leads a Louisville Institute-funded oral history project titled “Stories of Faith, Resilience, and Politics: First-Generation East Asian American Christians” and an APARRI working group grant on “Advancing Asian American Theology: Collaborative Manuscript Development Workshop.” He also co-directs a $250,000 Henry Luce grant project, “Religiously-Inspired Asian American Coalitional Justice Work,” and an APARRI grant focused on “Filipino American Nurses: Faith and Professional Communities in the Age of COVID and Anti-Asian Hate.” These projects aim to advance scholarly research and foster collaborative engagement within Asian American Christian communities, particularly at the intersections of faith, racial identity, and social justice.
Chao’s recent publications include peer-reviewed articles that explore the intersections of Christian doctrine, migration, and social identity. In his article “The 1517 Project and World Christianity: Migration and the Uses of Doctrine,” published in the International Bulletin of Mission Research, Chao examines how doctrines have evolved and interacted with socio-political contexts from the Protestant Reformation to contemporary Asian Christianity, focusing on the experiences of Dalit Christians in India and Taiwanese Americans. His article “Evangelical or Mainline? Doctrinal Similarity and Difference in Asian American Christianity: Sketching a Social-Practical Theory of Christian Doctrine,” published in Theology Today, analyzes how Asian American Christians disrupt the evangelical-mainline theological binary. These works contribute to a deeper understanding of how doctrinal identity is negotiated in diasporic settings and emphasize the contextual embodiment of Christian teachings in diverse cultural landscapes.
Chao has served as the co-author and project editor for the first $300,000 translation grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Karl Barth Translator’s Seminar. He is a member of the steering committee for the Reformed Theology and History Unit of the American Academy of Religion and is actively involved in several professional organizations, including the Association for Asian American Studies and the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative. He also brings extensive pastoral experience, having served in Chinese American, Korean American, and pan-Asian congregations across various denominational settings.
Chao’s academic and pastoral work is driven by his commitment to exploring the complex identities and lived experiences of Asian American Christians. He seeks to amplify their voices and stories, exploring how their faith informs their engagement with social justice, identity, and community resilience.
Selected Publications (for download):
