Bio:
Xiaoli was raised in various subcultures of Asia and moved to Australia as an overseas student at university. Following her professional accounting career, she was involved in pioneering and pastoring a multilingual Asian church within a large Baptist church for seven years. Since 2007, Xiaoli has been training and equipping leaders locally and abroad in both seminary and church settings. She is an ordained minister, an accredited spiritual director and a bilingual poet. Her PhD from the University of Divinity offers a conversation between the Chinese soul-searching and the gospel of Jesus Christ through a unique contextual poetic lens (Leiden: Brill, 2018). She is currently working on a bible commentary on John’s letters from Asian perspectives, and a book on a theology of migration and displacement. She serves on the executive committee of the Australian Association of Mission Studies and the editorial board of the Australian Journal of Mission Studies. She is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and several other dialects.
Research Interests:
Intercultural Theology; World/Asian Christianity, Poetic Theology, Comparative Theology, Migration, Ethno-hermeneutics, Spirituality/Spiritual Direction
Recent Publications:
- “Listening to the Echoes of Lausanne 4 and Learning Lessons of Abiding.” Christian Daily International
- “Towards a Grassroots Missiology: Case Studies of Missio Dei in the Streets of East Asia”, Refaithing Work: Missiological Perspectives for a Disrupted Age
- “Canaan Hymns: Towards a Decolonizing Missiology of the Chinese Church Movement”, Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies
- “Creation and Tian”, T & T Clark Handbook of the Doctrine of Creation
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“Leaps in the Womb of Asia—Transformative Intercultural Discipleship in the Sacred Space”, Missiology – An International Review
“Lived Poetics as a Contemplative Stance of Christian Witness – The Case from Australia for a World in Crisis”, International Bulletin of Mission Research
- “Towards a Chinese Theology of Displacement—the Poetic Journey of a Chinese Migrant”. Mission Studies 37, no. 2 (2020): 193-217.
- “Contemplative Aspects of Pentecostal Spirituality—A Case Study of a Retreat Experience in Asia”. Journal of Pentecostal Theology 28, no. 1, (2019): 123-42.
- A Dialogue between Haizi’s Poetry and the Gospel of Luke—Chinese Homecoming and the Relationship with Jesus Christ, Theology and Mission in World Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 2018).