Books
The Catholic Church at the Heart of Empire: The Jesuit Missions and Ecclesial Formation in the Manchu Christian Communities of Qing China
Editors:
Ms Chengcheng Liu, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge
Dr Lars Laamann, Department of History & School of History, Religions and Philosophies, SOAS University of London
Dr Simeon Xu, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge
Publisher: The full manuscript will be submitted to Cambridge University Press for consideration.
The Catholic communities that emerged within Manchu Banner society grew out of the Jesuit mission established in late Ming China yet developed within the distinctive political and social conditions of Qing China. Among members of the ruling elite, Christianity was received through institutions of governance, kinship, and household life, where communities and devotional practices developed in close proximity to imperial sovereignty. Although these developments have attracted increasing scholarly attention, they have rarely been viewed together as parts of a single history. This volume reconstructs that history.
The story begins in the political and social world of the Qing ruling elite. Questions of orthodoxy and imperial order shaped the conditions under which Christianity was received among Manchu Banner society. For those whose lives were defined by service to the throne, Christian affiliation touched concerns that reached beyond toleration or persecution and intersected with prevailing understandings of loyalty, moral order, and social obligation. Conversion was therefore rarely a matter of private faith alone but unfolded through relationships among elites, bondservants, and households within court society, where Catholic traditions took root through existing structures of service and patronage.
Within this setting, language became central to the transmission of Christian traditions. As a language closely associated with imperial rule, Manchu provided a medium through which biblical texts, catechisms, and devotional instruction could circulate within Manchu Banner society. The translations of Louis Antoine de Poirot and Stepan Lipovtsov exemplify this process, through which Christian traditions were rendered accessible to Manchu Banner communities. These texts were not merely linguistic artefacts. They sustained doctrine, devotion, and communal life within Banner society.
Building upon these processes of instruction and transmission, Catholic communities developed within the social networks of Manchu Banner society. With the increasing visibility of these communities within the institutions of Qing governance, their Christian affiliation attracted growing imperial attention. Their members included princes and families such as Sugiyen and Depei, whose lives remained closely bound to the institutions of imperial rule. Experiences of exile, political restriction, and diminished missionary presence tested communal continuity, yet texts and devotional practices sustained doctrine and religious life. Within households, marriage, family relations, and everyday practices provided the settings in which inherited Catholic teachings, including those articulated in Jesuit works such as Alfonso Vagnone’s treatise on marriage, were woven into the rhythms of domestic life.
By tracing the formation of Christian communities within the institutions and households of Manchu Banner society, the volume shifts attention from missionary activity and textual production to the forms of ecclesial life that developed among those closest to the heart of empire. It thereby illuminates a history in which Church and empire became deeply intertwined within the social worlds of the Qing ruling elite.
T&T Clark Handbook of Artificial Intelligence, Religion, and Ethics
Editors:
Simeon Xu, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge
George Coghill, School of Natural and Computing Sciences, University of Aberdeen / Edinburgh Theological Seminary
Publisher: T&T Clark (under contract)
Artificial Intelligence has attracted significant attention from religious communities; this has given rise to a growing scholarly literature. A result of this religious and theological engagement with AI over the past decade makes this an opportune time for a comprehensive examination of that interaction! One goal will be to explore how theology and AI can stimulate and enhance each other.
Aside from mainstream AI-and-religion studies, which often focus on sci-fi AI, we recognise that there is important work to be done in assessing the real-world effects of AI, particularly with respect to spiritual matters. Hence the T&T Clark Handbook of Artificial Intelligence, Religion, and Ethics is dedicated to articulating the interplay between state-of-the-art AI technology and religion/theology from ethical perspectives (while remaining somewhat attentive to the influence of sci-fi AI).
This volume is divided into five parts. Part I aims to lay a foundation for the remaining chapters, exploring themes such as AI definition(s), philosophy, ethics, and its relation to religion(s) and theology. Part II seeks to examine interactions between AI and diverse religions, including Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Part III inquires into challenges posed by AI technology for theology from the perspectives of multiple theological themes, and probes how AI and theology can enhance each other. Part IV delves into AI ethics from theological perspectives. It articulates theological approaches to AI ethics and develops theological responses to crucial themes related to AI. Part V turns to the public issues surrounding wide-ranging AI applications and attempts to advance theological approaches to integrating AI technology into human communities.
This volume presents an interreligious, cross-cultural, theological, and ethical way to promote the development of AI-and-religion research.
Beyond Sino-Christian Theology: Exploring the Theological Frontiers of Chinese Christianities
Editors:
Simeon Xu, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge
Quan Li, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh
Publisher: T&T Clark (under contract)
Sino-Christian theology as a theological movement emerged in the late 1980s and has significantly facilitated the growth and expansion of Chinese-language theology. It is primarily linked with Chinese academic communities. While some confessional and ecclesiastically committed Christian scholars joined this theological movement, the majority of Sino-Christian theologians are from Chinese universities and academic institutions, largely shaping Sino-Christian theology as a humanities discipline practised by Chinese university academics rather than theological practice in churches. Given this, there is important work to be done in exploring the theological frontiers of Chinese Christianities (i.e. all branches of Christianity among Chinese communities), going beyond Sino-Christian theology and serving both ecclesial and academic communities.
This volume seeks to probe Chinese theological practice after Sino-Christian theology. It is divided into three parts. Part I presents a historical account of Sino-Christian theology through investigating the phenomenon of cultural Christians, ecclesial response to this theological movement, and how theological translation has shaped the Chinese-language theological landscape over the past decades. Part II critically engages with the legacies of Sino-Christian theology in various research fields, sketching out the status quo of Sino-Christian theology and paving a way for constructive work on Chinese theology. Part III constructively explores the future trajectories of Chinese theology, moving towards post-Sino-Christian theology or a new phrase of Chinese theology. It looks into some underexplored, emerging, or pressing subjects. By doing so, it characterises the frontiers of Chinese theology as both confessional-academic and contextual-global.