Submitted by Mrs Jane Wallace on Thu, 08/05/2025 - 11:44
Lux Mundi Inc. (USA) has awarded Dr. Ximian Simeon Xu a grant of £1 million to establish the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology (CCCT). The project will advance Chinese theology understood in the broadest sense through addressing the context and concerns of Chinese Christians, the study of theological work emerging from China and the Chinese diaspora, and the facilitating of closer links between theologians from the West and those in China and elsewhere in Asia. Dr. Xu, Senior Research Associate, and Prof. David Fergusson, Regius Professor of Divinity, serve as Co-Directors of the Centre.
CCCT has the following threefold aim: (1) to create and foster academic links between leading universities, divinity schools and scholars in Europe, North America, East Asia, and South Asia in the field of Chinese theology; (2) to catalyse exchange and collaboration between Western and Chinese theologians and religious thinkers worldwide; (3) to extend the research scope of academic theology in the UK. In pursuit of these aims, CCCT will establish visiting fellowships and an early-career research fellowship, host a programme of events including conferences, knowledge exchange workshops, and academic lectures, and produce bilingual educational resources for faith communities. CCCT will host its launch event in the Faculty of Divinity commencing at 12 noon on Thursday 2 October 2025. Further details will be announced in the coming months.
Dr. Xu (PhD in Systematic Theology, University of Edinburgh) joined the Faculty of Divinity as a Senior Research Associate in January 2025. Prior to this, he held the Kenneth and Isabel Morrison Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Theology and AI Ethics and later the Duncan Forrester Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of two monographs: Theology as the Science of God: Herman Bavinck’s Wetenschappelijke Theology for the Modern World (V&R, 2022) and The Digitalised Image of God: Artificial Intelligence, Liturgy, and Ethics (Routledge, 2024). He has also published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on Christian theology, contextual theology (esp. Sino-Reformed theology), and theology and science (esp. AI and theology). As part of CCCT’s research programme, he is currently working on a monograph project provisionally titled A Moral Theology of Artificial Intelligence: Christian Virtue Ethics, Confucian Moral Philosophy, and Ethical AI.
The Faculty of Divinity is grateful to the trustees of Lux Mundi Inc. (USA) for their generosity and support of this exciting initiative.