Dr Alexander Chow (FHEA)
Senior Lecturer in Theology and World Christianity
Address
- Street
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New College
Mound Place - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH1 2LX
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 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).
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
- DIVI10093 Theologies in Global Contexts
- DIVI10134 Christianity and Nation-Building in Asia, 1700 to the present
Postgraduate teaching
- DIVI11049 Mission, Media, and Migration: The Making of a World Church (PG)
- DIVI11095 Christianity and Nation-Building in Asia, 1700 to the present (PG)
- WRCH11018 Selected Themes in the Study of World Christianity
- WRCH11020 Theologies of World Christianity
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Current PhD students supervised
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Elilo Ezung, ‘The Holy Spirit among the Nagas: Contouring Pneumatology in Context’
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Zihao He, ‘Analyzing the Role of Theology in the Anti-Manchu Violence of the Taiping Rebellion’
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David Lewis, ‘Theology and Ecology in Chryssavgis, Maathai and Johnsen: A World Christianity Perspective’
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Jerusha Lieow, ‘Investigating Paul’s Comparison Between the Lord’s Table and the Table of the Demons in 1 Corinthians 10:14–22’
- 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’
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Biao Zhu, ‘Ecclesiological Movements in Chinese Protestantism’
Past PhD students supervised
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Zhongchao Ma (2025), ‘Ling'en Christianity in San Gabriel Valley: Immigrant Chinese doing religion in the United States’
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G. Ray Burbank (2024), ‘Cross-Cultural Transmission of Evangelical Conversion Theology in Nineteenth-Century Western India’
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Rathiulung Elias (2024), ‘Christology and Cosmology: Weaving Incarnation into the Indigenous Lifeworlds of Rongmei Baptists in Manipur, India’
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Agana-Nsiire Agana (2024), ‘A Philosophical Theology of Personhood in the Digital: The Case of Ghana’s Young Christians’
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Dingjian (James) Xie (2023), ‘Jingjiao Theology: translation, doctrine and religious practice in Tang China (618-907)’
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Jin (Jane) Meng (2023), ‘A Christian Embodiment of Neo-Confucian Active Mysticism: A Study on Jia Yuming’s Spirituality’
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Robert Alec Simpson (2022), ‘Gifts from the World: Bringing Dumitru Staniloae in Conversation with Prominent Themes in Majority World Theologies’
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Calida Chu (2020), ‘Public Theology in post-97 Hong Kong’
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Tore Johnsen (2020), ‘Contribution of Northern Sami everyday Christianity to a cosmologically-oriented Christian theology’
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Quan (Luke) Li (2020), ‘Conceptions of Responsibility and Visions of the Common Life: A Comparative Study of Karl Barth and Mou Zongsan’
- Andrew Ong (2020), ‘Toward a Chinese American evangelical theology: The promise of neo-Calvinism’
- Da (Daniel) Qin (2020), ‘Evolution of evangelical socio-political approaches in contemporary China (1980s-2010s)’
Research summary
Alex's research interests mainly revolve around the following:
- Majority world theology
- Global Chinese Christianity
- Christianity and Migration
- Digital theology