Email: [email protected]
First Year at Gordon-Conwell: 1982
Expertise: Ethics, Church and Society, Latin American Theology
Biography:
Ruy Costa grew up in southern Brazil where he was first formed by the strong ties of a small, rural, predominantly Roman Catholic community. With the conversion of his family when he was still young, Ruy was immersed in the practices and teachings of a newly formed evangelical community. Later he would attend the Presbyterian Seminary of Campinas, as well as the University of Mogi das Cruzes in São Paulo. Soon after, he served on the staff of the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship (Aliança BÍblica Universitária) and taught Social Studies at two Methodist high schools (Escola Americana and IPA) in Porto Alegre.
In the United States, Dr. Costa obtained a MATS in Christian Social Ethics from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a PhD in Religious Studies (Sciences of Religion) from Boston University. In the early 1980s, he joined Gordon-Conwell’s Boston campus teaching and helping the Founding Director, Eldin Villafañe, design a Portuguese Language Track for newly arriving Brazilian pastors.
Dr. Costa was the Associate Director and Legislative Agent for the Massachusetts Council of Churches from 1989 to 1999 and the Executive Director of Episcopal City Mission in Boston from 1999 to 2015. He has also served in various committees of the Presbyterian Church (USA), including the Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee (MRTI) and the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, which he chaired from 2001 to 2003. In 2004 he was an elected commissioner of the PC (USA) to the General Assembly of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in Accra.
In 2018 Dr. Costa rejoined the Boston Campus and since 2021 he has been part of Gordon-Conwell’s Latino and Global Ministries Division.
Degrees
- MATS (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary)
- PhD (Boston University)
Selected List of Publications
- Culto, política e transgressão. Pluralidades, 2022.
- Globalization and Culture, a study commissioned by the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) of the Presbyterian Church (USA). ACSWP, 2003.
- Toward a Latin American Protestant Ethic of Liberation, PhD dissertation, University Microfilms International, 1990.