Dr. Ximian Simeon Xu
Senior Research Associate
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
Biography
Biographical information is not available at present.
Biography
Ximian Xu (徐西面; preferred name: Simeon) is originally from Wenzhou, China—a city the BBC has referred to as “China’s Jerusalem”. He completed his Master of Divinity (First Class Honours) at the School of Divinity, the University of Edinburgh, in 2013, followed by Master of Theology in History (Distinction) in 2017 and PhD in systematic theology in 2020, also at the School of Divinity. His doctoral thesis explored the Dutch Neo-Calvinist theologian Herman Bavinck’s idea of theology as the science of God and constructively articulated how this theological idea can help demonstrate the due place of theology within contemporary universities. In 2021, Simeon joined the University of Edinburgh’s School of Divinity and Edinburgh Futures Institute as Kenneth and Isabel Morrison Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Theology and Ethics of AI. In 2024, he was appointed Duncan Forrester Fellow in the University's Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities/Centre for Theology and Public Issues, working on the project titled "AI Surveillance and Theology of Justice". Simeon joined the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, as Senior Research Associate in January 2025. He also serves as a founding Co-Director (with Prof. David Fergusson) of the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Theology.
Simeon’s research interests lie in Christian theology, Dutch Neo-Calvinism (esp. Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper), Chinese theology (esp. Sino-Reformed theology and Confucianism), and theology and technology (esp. AI, surveillance). He has published two monographs and numerous peer-reviewed articles on these subjects. He is currently working on a monograph project, provisionally entitled A Moral Theology of Artificial Intelligence: Christian Virtue Ethics, Confucian Moral Philosophy, and Ethical AI. This project aims to explore how cross-cultural and contextual dialogues between Christian ethics and Confucian moral philosophy can contribute to the development of an international ethical framework for AI application.
Honoraria Titles
Major Prizes
Religion, Philosophy & History Interests
Christianity-Protestantism, Confusianism, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Theology
Science & Technology Interests
Anthropology, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Neuroscience
Website
https://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/staff/dr-ximian-simeon-xu
Publications
Theology as the Science of God: Herman Bavinck’s Wetenschappelijke Theology for the Modern World
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2022
The Digitalised Image of God: Artificial Intelligence, Liturgy, and Ethics
Routledge 2024
The Imago Dei: A Holistic Interpretation
Cambridge University Press Under Contract
T&T Clark Handbook of Artificial Intelligence, Religion, and Ethics
T&T Clark Under Contract
Editors:Co-edited with George Coghill
