Email: [email protected]
First Year at Gordon-Conwell: 2022
Expertise: Pastoral/Practical Theology, Augustine of Hippo, Counseling Psychology
Biography:
Dr. Davi C. Ribeiro Lin’s interest in pastoral theology and ministry have been shaped by an interdisciplinary perspective; he is trained in practical theology, counseling psychology, and the pastoral perspective of Augustine of Hippo. Dr. Ribeiro Lin has served for a decade as an evangelical pastor in Brazil, covering a wide range of areas within the church, including preaching, teaching, discipleship, pastoral care, and counseling.
He brings a global perspective to the Gordon-Conwell community as an Asian-Latin American pastor who was theologically trained in Europe and South and North America, and specialized in the work of African Bishop Augustine of Hippo. As someone who was raised between two cultures (Brazilian mother and a Taiwanese father), he soon realized how grace and truth were to be cultivated in order to foster unity in diversity, both in family, church and society.
He completed his joint PhD at KU Leuven/Louvain, Belgium and FAJE, Brazil (summa cum laude) and with a dissertation on how Augustine’s Confessions are not merely an auto-biography but a theography, an other-centered narrative of a person-in-relation that uses the motif of confessio (“opening the wounds of sin,” “praising the doctor”), to stand as a patient, a theological therapy (Langham Literature, forthcoming). Dr. Ribeiro Lin’s publications and presentations, both in English and Portuguese, have also included theology-psychology dialogue, theological anthropology, spirituality, health, and Latin American perspectives.
Before coming to Gordon-Conwell, he taught at Seminário Teológico Servo de Cristo in São Paulo. Over those years, his students have written their personal theographies, retelling a loss or stressful life event as “wounded memories trespassed by grace.” The project has been awarded the Lamin Sanneh Prize by the Overseas Ministry Study Center at Princeton.
Dr. Ribeiro Lin is married to Aline, whom he met in music school when they were children, and has a son named Bernardo. Through singing, piano, guitar, and violin, music and worship have become an integral part of both family life and his teaching experience.
Degrees
- BA (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil)
- Counseling Psychology Specialization (FEAD-MG, Brazil)
- MA (Regent College, Canada)
- PhD (Ku Leuven, Belgium and Faculdade Jesuíta, Brazil)
Select List of Publications
- “Relational Confession as Therapy of the Heart? A Postmodern Dialogue Between Augustine of Hippo’s Confessions and Elementary Experience in Psychology.” (Langham Literature, forthcoming).
- “The Absence of Dialogue in a Technologically Faceless Age: An Augustinian Response of Embrace and Confession” in Beyond Integral Mission: Fresh Voices from Latin America. (Fortress Press, 2023).
- “Agostinho de Hipona e a redescoberta do potencial terapêutico da teologia narrativa para a saúde mental.” (Augustine of Hippo and the Rediscovery of the Therapeutic Potential of Narrative Theology for Mental Health). Cuestiones Teológicas v. 49 n. 112 (2022): 1-18.
- “Unidade cordial da pessoa humana e da comunidade: o símbolo do coração nos escritos e na recepção artística de Agostinho de Hipona.” (Cordial Unity of Person and Community: the Heart Symbolism in the Writings and Artistic Reception of Augustine of Hippo). Franciscanum no. 175 v. 63 (2021): 1-22.
- “Graça e Heteronomia na Antropologia Relacional de Agostinho de Hipona.” (Grace and Heteronomy in the Relational Anthropology of Augustine of Hippo). Civitas Augustiniana n. 9 (2020-2021): 35–59.
- “Love’s Crossing through Self-emptying Language: Augustine of Hippo’s confessio and Adélia Prado’s Mystical Poetry.” Teoliterária v. 10 n. 21 (2020): 445-469.
- “Augustine’s Anti-ideological Political Realism in De Civitate Dei.” Atualidade Teológica, v. 24, n. 66 (2020): 760-774.
- “Terapia no mundo antigo e suas implicações para um diálogo entre Psicologia e Teologia.” (Therapy in the Ancient World and its Implications for a Dialogue between Psychology and Theology). Psicologia, laicidade, espiritualidade, religião e outras tradições: encontrando caminhos para o diálogo CRP04 (Belo Horizonte, 2019): 167-180.