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Research
Young Man at His Window, 1876 by Gustave Caillebotte
Is there space in contemporary society for historical faith? What can faith say to the unique problems of today’s world? Faith and Global Engagement is devoted to answering these questions, as it explores the engagement between faith traditions with society and culture. This engagement brings together both the historical and contemporary world to address critical issues for human flourishing and planetary wellbeing today.
Ongoing Research:
FAITH & FLOURISHING
Over the past decade, our research direction has been shaped by a series of local and global challenges – political unrest, Covid 19, social and cultural fragmentation, geo-political conflicts, disruptive technologies, and climate change. At this crucial crossroad in our region, what roles do faith traditions play in enabling flourishing to take root amidst such crises? In particular, we seek to investigate how the dynamics of Christianity’s engagement with China, both in the past and present, can contribute to the development of individual, societal, and planetary wellbeing.
We approach the question from various disciplinary perspectives, using historical and contemporary lenses to bring basic and applied research into focus. Our plan is to incorporate insights from pure research into our scholastic approach which in turn will produce new research based on the data from our teaching programmes.
Currently, our developing research cluster covers four areas:
The Past and the Present, or Philosophical Thought, 1899 by Henri Rousseau
This research addresses issues of flourishing through lenses of aesthetical, axiological, and Chinese philosophies in conversation with Christian theologies.
Poster art by Magnus Norstad
This explores the impact of Christian and Chinese traditions on theories and practices in character and leadership education and development.
AND HERITAGE
Jiangnan Hometown by anonymous
This cluster aims to explore our urban past and heritage (e.g., faith traditions) from the perspective of sustainability and resilience, which in turn will shed light on our pursuit of urban sustainability and resilience in contemporary society and forging a vision for our urban futures. It focuses on three key areas of enquiry: historical knowledge and experience, the historical urban landscape, and urban re-inventiveness. Research in this cluster is carried out through the Flourishing Cities: Past, Present, and Future Project.
Lead:
Historical Chinese Christian poster by anonymous
This area of research focuses on Christianity’s interactions with various key aspects of Chinese societies during different historical periods since its arrival in China in the 7th century. It is devoted especially to exploring the relationship between Christianity and the modernisation of China in the early modern period.
Please visit the CiC Research Lab webpage for details.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY
Jonathan Johnson (End of 2025). Aesthetics of Play in “Philosophy’s Arena: Play and Players in a Gamified World edited by Jeremy Sampson.
Delaware: Vernon Press.
Jonathan Johnson (January 2025). The Sublime Extends to Chinese Aesthetics in Philosophy East and West, no. 75.
University of Hawai’i Press
Daniel K. L. Chua (November 2024). Music & Joy.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
Jonathan Johnson (14 March 2024). How AI could free us to return to the pursuit of wisdom. South China Morning Post.
Jonathan Johnson (January 2024). Original Intentionalism: A Comparison of Textual and Visual Hermeneutics in Originalism in Theology and Law: Comparing Perspectives in Constitutional Law and Biblical Theology by Boone and Eckel.
London: Lexington Books.
Chan, Shun Hing and Jonathan Johnson, eds. (April 2021). Civil Society and Christian Religion in Greater China.
Brill.
Jonathan Johnson (June 2019). Compréhensions de la laideur dans l’esthétique de Kant in On the Ugly: Aesthetic Exchanges edited by J. Forsey and L. Aagaard-Mogensen.
Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars.
Jonathan Johnson (May 2018). Compréhensions de la laideur dans l’esthétique de Kant in SUR LA LAIDEUR: Actes du symposium On Ugliness, edited & translated by Bertrand Naivin (The “Toad” book cover was also illustrated by Jonathan Johnson)
Paris: Editions Complicite.
EDUCATION & SOCIAL SCIENCE
Ling, H.L., & Pang, M.F. (2022). A Vignette-Based Transformative Multiphase Mixed Methods Interventional Study Featuring Venn Diagram Joint Displays: Financial Education With Hong Kong Early Adolescent Ethnic Minority Students. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 16(1), 130-149.
Ng, C.H., Koh, N.K. & Ling, H.L. (2021). Incorporating New Literacies in Designing a Mobile Learning Application for Secondary/Middle School Students. Education and Information Technologies, 26, 1485–1504.
HISTORY & URBAN STUDIES
Historical Studies:
Chen, Y. S. (2026 under contract). Integrated Planning in the Neo-Assyrian Empire in The Routledge Handbook of Urban Evolution in Ancient Western Asia and North Africa: The Lives of Cities edited by Shane M Thompson (North Carolina Wesleyan University, USA), Yi Samuel Chen, and Laura Battini (CNRS-Paris Sciences et Lettres University, France). Routledge.
Chen, Y. S., co-authored with Shame Thompson (under review). The Interplay between Nomadism, Sedentism, and Urbanism in the Patriarchal Narratives of the Book of Genesis. Biblica.
Chen, Y. S. (2024). Planning Historiography in the Neo-Assyrian Empire: A Preliminary Study in Proceedings of the 20th International Planning History Society Conference (Hong Kong, 2-5 July) edited by Ian Morley and Hendrik Tieben. TU Delft.
Chen, Y. S. (2023). Neo-Assyrian Urban and Regional Development and Governance on the Frontiers of the Empire. Orientalia 92: 71–129.
Modern and Contemporary Studies:
Chen, Y. S., co-authored with Handuo Deng, Qi Hu, Chenghe Guan, and Monica Menendez (2024). Building a Government-owned Open Data Platform for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. Cities 149: 1–16.
Chen, Y. S., co-authored with Huazhen Liu, Miao Yang, Chenghe Guan, Michael Keith, Meizi You, and Monica Menendez ( 2023). Urban Infrastructure Design Principles for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: A Case Study of Oxford, UK. Computational Urban Science 3: 34 1–21
Chen, Y. S., co-authored with Xiaoling Zhang (January 2023). Three-Dimensional Ambition: The Domestic, Regional and National Challenges for Hong Kong’s Greater Bay Area Integration Strategy. AsiaGlobal Online, Asia Global Institute, the University of Hong Kong.
Past Research:
FAITH & SCIENCE
Faith and Science was a 6-year (Dec 2015 – Nov 2018 and Jul 2019 – Jul 2022) research project funded by Templeton World Charity Foundation. The research investigated the interrelationships between science and religion. We work with academics from across Hong Kong, drawn from natural and social sciences, engineering, theology and philosophy. By cultivating interdisciplinary discussions, we have facilitated a process of mutual transformation by which religion can enrich science and science can enrich religion.
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