Committees
Management Committee
The structure and the membership of the Committee of Management have been approved by the Faculty Board on 04/07/2025.
Ximian Simeon Xu (徐西面) is Assistant Research Professor in the Faculty of Divinity and serves as Co-Director (with Prof. David Fergusson) of the Centre. He joined the Faculty as a Senior Research Associate in January 2025. Before that, he was Kenneth and Isabel Morrison Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Theology and Ethics of AI (2021), followed by Duncan Forrester Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities/Centre for Theology and Public Issues (2024).
Simeon's research interests lie in Christian theology, Dutch Neo-Calvinism (esp. Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper), Chinese theology (esp. Sino-Reformed theology), and theology and technology (esp. AI ethics).
David Fergusson is Regius Professor of Divinity in the Faculty of Divinity and serves as Co-Director of the Centre. He took up his current post in April 2021, having been Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Aberdeen (1990–2000) and Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh (2000–2021). He serves as Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland and Dean of the Order of the Thistle. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2004) and a Fellow of the British Academy (2013).
David has worked across a range of subjects in historical and contemporary theology. He is currently preparing a one-volume systematics and a short monograph on the doctrine of the Trinity.
Richard Rex is Professor of Reformation History in the Faculty of Divinity, and Polkinghorne Fellow in Theology and Religious Studies at Queens' College. He also serves as the Chair of Faculty Board. His research interests focus on the interaction between religion, politics, and ideas in early modern England and Europe.
Professor Jörg Haustein is Professor of Global Christianity and Fellow of Selwyn College. He joined the Faculty in 2019 after teaching Religions in Africa at at the School of Oriental and African Studies (2013–2019), and Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology at the University of Heidelberg (2003–2013). He earned his PhD at Heidelberg with a study of Ethiopian Pentecostalism (2009), and completed his habilitation at the University of Heidelberg with a study of German colonialism and Islam in East Africa (2020).
Jörg's research encompasses three main fields: (1) Pentecostal and Charismatic movements; (2) Colonialism and religions in Africa; (3) Religion and international development.
Ms Jill Christiaens joined the Centre in June 2025 as Project Coordinator.
Advisory Committee
Our advisors kindly provide strategic advice on our research agenda, help identify emerging opportunities, and offer high-level feedback on our progress.
Ximian Simeon Xu (徐西面) is Assistant Research Professor in the Faculty of Divinity and serves as Co-Director (with Prof. David Fergusson) of the Centre. He joined the Faculty as a Senior Research Associate in January 2025. Before that, he was Kenneth and Isabel Morrison Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Theology and Ethics of AI (2021), followed by Duncan Forrester Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities/Centre for Theology and Public Issues (2024).
Simeon's research interests lie in Christian theology, Dutch Neo-Calvinism (esp. Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper), Chinese theology (esp. Sino-Reformed theology), and theology and technology (esp. AI ethics).
Dr Daryl Ireland is a Research Associate Professor at the School of Theology, Boston University. He is fascinated by popular forms of Christianity. The work done by pastors, priests, and academic theologians is important, but how do young urbanites express their faith? What makes the gospel appealing to illiterate farmers? Which sounds and images can both captivate and express the imagination of the masses? These questions have pushed Ireland to explore such things as Chinese revivals, West African Pentecostal films, and the North American Sanctuary Movement. He has also worked to document popular Christianity, collaborating with a team to create digital tools such as the China Historical Christian Database and the Chinese Christian Posters project. He is a recognized authority on Chinese Christianity, but his interests and position as the Associate Director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission have kept him attentive to the many expressions of Christianity around the world.
Revd Dr Helen Dawes is the Principal of Westcott House, having previously been the Team Rector of Shaftesbury and the Dean of Women’s Ministry in the Diocese of Salisbury. Helen serves as a member of the Standing and Finance sub-committees of Westcott Council. In the Cambridge Theological Federation, Helen chairs the Resources Committee and serves as member of the Cambridge, Durham and Anglia Ruskin Academic Oversight Groups.
Helen trained for ministry at Westcott House, serving in parish ministry in the dioceses of Ely and St Albans following ordination before joining the Archbishop of Canterbury’s staff team at Lambeth Palace. She was Deputy Secretary for Public Affairs to Archbishop Rowan Williams and then Social and Public Affairs Adviser to Archbishop Justin Welby.
Helen studied for her PhD at King’s College London and her academic work focuses on the intersection of theology with economic life and public policy. She has wide-ranging interests in Christian engagement in the public square.
Professor Chloë Starr is Professor of Asian Christianity and Theology in Yale Divinity School. She works in the borderland of theology and literature. She has just completed a series of three edited volumes setting out the field of Modern Chinese Theologies, published in 2023 and 2024. She recently published a long-awaited translation A Reader in Chinese Theology, bringing primary source texts to an English-reading audience. She is currently working on a study of Christ in Chinese fiction. Her last monograph, Chinese Theology (2016), was a study of Chinese theological texts and their ties to literary forms. Prof. Starr’s courses explore a range of approaches to East Asian theology, including theological survey, Chinese and Japanese Christian literatures, China Mission, and Asian American theologies. She taught previously at the universities of Durham, where she was Senior Tutor of St. John’s College, and Oxford, where she taught classical Chinese literature. Other works include Red-light Novels of the Late Qing (2007); a coedited volume, The Quest for Gentility in China (2007); and an edited volume, Reading Christian Scriptures in China (2008).
Dr Alexander Chow is a Senior Lecturer in Theology and World Christianity in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh. He is a Chinese American, born and raised in Southern California. He completed his PhD in theology at the University of Birmingham, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Renmin University of China, where he was doing research in Chinese Christianity and teaching in the School of Liberal Arts before he joined the University of Edinburgh in September 2013. He is co-director of the Centre for the Study of World Christianity, co-editor of the journal Studies in World Christianity (Edinburgh University Press), and editor of the Liu Institute Series in Chinese Christianities (Notre Dame Press).
Alex has written a number of articles on Christianity in China, and more broadly, in East Asia. He has written or edited six books, including Chinese Public Theology: Generational Shifts and Confucian Imagination in Chinese Christianity (Oxford University Press 2018) and Chinese Heritage in British Christianity: More than Foreigners (SCM Press 2025).
Professor Kevin Xiyi Yao is Professor of World Christianity and Asian Studies in Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He joined Gordon-Conwell with ten years of experience ministering in Hong Kong and mainland China. His career as a theological educator officially started in 2003, when he became an assistant (most recently associate) professor at the Department of Theological Studies, China Graduate School of Theology (CGST), located in Hong Kong. In addition to serving as a church history and Chinese culture professor, he has held a variety of other positions, including students’ spiritual formation mentor, and coordinator of the Mandarin program. Kevin academic career dates back to 1987, when he began work at the Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as an editor and researcher. He was with the Institute for two years and also served as a visiting scholar there.
Dr Xutong Qu is an Associate Professor in the School of Philosophy, Tsinghua University. He holds Dr. theol. (summa cum laude) from University of Heidelberg. Before joined Tsinghua University, he was an Assistant Professor in the School of Philosophy, Beijing Normal University. His research interests lie in philosophy, theology, and Sino-Christian theology.
David Fergusson is Regius Professor of Divinity in the Faculty of Divinity and serves as Co-Director of the Centre. He took up his current post in April 2021, having been Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Aberdeen (1990–2000) and Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh (2000–2021). He serves as Dean of the Chapel Royal in Scotland and Dean of the Order of the Thistle. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2004) and a Fellow of the British Academy (2013).
David has worked across a range of subjects in historical and contemporary theology. He is currently preparing a one-volume systematics and a short monograph on the doctrine of the Trinity.