Dr Alexander Chow (FHEA)

Senior Lecturer in Theology and World Christianity

Biography

Background

Alexander Chow 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 five books, including Theosis, Sino-Christian Theology and the Second Chinese Enlightenment (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013; Chinese edition: Institute of Sino-Christian Studies, 2015) and Chinese Public Theology: Generational Shifts and Confucian Imagination in Chinese Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Qualifications

BS MA ThM PhD FHEA

Responsibilities & affiliations

Co-director, Centre for the Study of World Christianity

Co-editor, Studies in World Christianity (Edinburgh University Press)

Book Series Editor, Liu Institute Series in Chinese Christianities (Notre Dame Press)

Founding Chair, Chinese Christianities Program Unit (American Academy of Religion)

Undergraduate teaching

  • DIVI08015 History of Christianity as a World Religion 1B
  • DIVI08023 Christian Theology: Approaches and Themes
  • DIVI08025 Christian Theology: Doctrines and Debates
  • DIVI10006 Theology in the Age of Technology
  • DIVI10093 Theologies in Global Contexts

Postgraduate teaching

  • DIVI11027 Theology, Ethics and Technology
  • WRCH11018 Selected Themes in the Study of World Christianity
  • WRCH11019 Christianity in Asia, 1700 to the Present
  • WRCH11020 Theologies of World Christianity

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

  • G. Ray Burbank, ‘The Cross-Cultural Transmission of Evangelical Theologies of Conversion in Nineteenth-Century India’

  • Rathiulung Elias, ‘Christology and Cosmology: Weaving Incarnation into the Indigenous Lifeworlds of Rongmei Baptists in Manipur, India’

  • Elilo Ezung, ‘The Holy Spirit among the Nagas: Contouring Pneumatology in Context’

  • Zihao He, ‘Analyzing the Role of Theology in the Anti-Manchu Violence of the Taiping Rebellion’

  • David Lewis, ‘Theology and Ecology in Chryssavgis, Maathai and Johnsen: A World Christianity Perspective’

  • Jerusha Lieow, ‘Investigating Paul’s Comparison Between the Lord’s Table and the Table of the Demons in 1 Corinthians 10:14–22’

  • Chao Ma, ‘Charismatic Chinese American Christianity in the Los Angeles Basin’

  • Hannah Nation, ‘Understanding the Public Implications of Union with Christ: Retrieving the Cross-Contextual Theologies of Sundar Singh, Toyohiko Kagawa, and Watchman Nee for the Anglophone Textual Community’

  • Biao Zhu, ‘Ecclesiological Movements in Chinese Protestantism’

Past PhD students supervised

Research summary

Alex's research interests mainly revolve around the following:

  • Majority world theology
  • Global Chinese Christianity
  • Christianity and Migration
  • Digital theology

Affiliated research centres

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