Short Bio
Sonja Xia has obtained her Ph.D. in theology from K.U.Leuven, Belgium. Her research is on the formation of doctrines in the early Church. Before joining USJ, she worked as a post-doctoral research fellow in the project of Intellectual Humility at the Faculty of Philosophy, St. Louis University MO, and research fellow at the Faculty of Philosophy, Sun Yat-sen University. She has taught courses on the Bible and world religions. Currently, she teaches the history and theology of the early Church as well as Mariology. She serves as the Chair of the Pedagogical Council and a member of the Board of Examiners of FRSP.
Her research field covers the doctrinal development in the Early Church and the mystical tradition in the Early Church.
Publications
Articles:
Xia, Hui. “The Light Imagery in Gregory of Nyssa’s Trinitarian Theology.” Sino-Christian Studies, 26 (2018), 7-41. 2.
Xia, Hui. “The Light Imagery in Gregory of Nyssa’s Contra Eunomium III, 6.” Studia Patristica 67 (2013), 91-99.
Xia, Hui. “From Light to Darkness: the Progress of the Spiritual Journey according to Gregory's De vita Moysis.” In Matthieu Cassin et al. (ed.): Gregory of Nyssa: Contra Eunomium III: an English version with supporting studies: proceedings of the 12th International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa. Leiden: Brill, 2014: 540-551.
Xia, Hui. “Gregory of Nyssa’s Thought on Spiritual Journey: A Comparison of His De beatitudinibus and De vita Moysis.” Logos & Pneuma: Chinese Journal of Theology 49 (2018), 51-81.
Xia, Hui. "Being Spiritual in Life Vicissitudes - The Present Time and Perpetual Spiritual Journey in the Light of Gregory of Nyssa's Mysticism." The Journal of the Macau Ricci Institute, no. 10 (2022), 57-66.
Xia, Hui. "Being in Western and Eastern Traditions: The Greek Ousia and Its Chinese Translation." COMIUCAP 2022 ACTA, forthcoming.
Xia, Hui. ‘The Christian Transformation of Greek Philosophical Concepts – the Distinction of Ousia and Hypostasis in the Formation of the Trinitarian Formula “One Ousia and Three Hypostases.” The Journal of the Macau Ricci Institute, no. 13 (2024), forthcoming.
夏徽，"东西方传统的交汇：希腊语 OUSIA 及其中文翻译，"《西方自然哲学在明清的传播》《西学东渐研究》商务印书馆16辑，待刊。
夏徽，"天主的恩寵和人的自由：對尼薩的額我略《真福八端講道集》的解讀，" 《神學論集》，待刊。
Book Reviews
Xia, Hui. Review of “Gregory of Nyssa’s Tabernacle Imagery in Its Jewish and Christian Contexts. By Ann Conway-Jones. Oxford Early Christian Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 320pp.” Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 85 (2016), 367-369.
Modules
Year 2 Bachelor
This course introduces students to the History of the early and medieval Church. Topics include: Judaism and the Christian faith; first Christian communities; the challenges of Christian expansion; persecutions; organization and Christian life; controversies and doctrinal development; the Church in the Roman Empire and changes under Constantine; monastic life; migrations and evangelization; the Church and feudal society; the Church in the West and in the East; Gregorian reform; the manifestations of Christianity: the crusades, administrative centralization, popular heresies and the inquisition, the medieval university; the decline of Christianity.
This course is an introduction to the Founding Fathers of the Church from the sub-apostolic period to the end of antiquity. The lives, writings, and doctrines of the great Early Church Fathers and ecclesiastical writers will be presented through readings, lectures, films, and discussions. The genius of the Church Fathers and their ongoing legacy will be shown.
Using the contributions of critical biblical scholarship, this course will first reconstruct, from the various Gospel accounts, the traces of what Jesus said and did during his ministry. The way Jesus seems to have faced death will be compared with the way his death and resurrection were interpreted by the early church. Moving through the Christological developments of the second to the eighth centuries, the course will finally consider how contemporary human experience impacts on current theological interpretations of Jesus and his meaning for our times.
This course is a historical and systematic study of Christian faith in the God of Jesus Christ. This course will include discussions of the understanding of God in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, the development of the doctrine of the Trinity, modern critiques of belief in God and Christian responses to these critiques. Participants will also address questions regarding God's relation to human suffering.
Year 3 Bachelor
This course provides a systematic introduction to the study of the Church as it has evolved over twenty centuries. Focusing upon both the idea and fact of the Church, special emphasis will be given to the Second Vatican Council and the conflicts of interpretation that have developed over it in post-Vatican II Catholic ecclesiology. Attention also will be given to the critiques and contributions of contextual theologies (Latin American, Asian, African and feminist) as well as the present state of the ecumenical movement regarding its goals, obstacles and promise for a united Christian Church.
As an integral part of the Licenciate studies, all undergraduate students at USJ are required to prepare and present a portfolio of their work. The portfolio is assembled over the entire duration of their undergraduate studies, and is to consist of selected pieces of work that they have produced during their studies. A student’s portfolio may contain examples of assignment work, tests and examination answer scripts, presentations and project reports, and other work done by the student during his or her studies.
Year 4 Bachelor
The focus of this Marian Theology course is the Scriptural Christocentric and Ecclesiotypical Mariology emerging from Vatican II. This course will also study the contribution of the Fathers of the Church, and the rich legacy of some Marian writers prior to Vatican II, because an appreciation of the past is indispensable for an understanding of Marian Theology today. Future directions in Mariology will also be explored.
