Biography
YIN Renlong is a Clarendon Scholar reading for the MSt in Theology (Science and Religion) at the University of Oxford, with a background in missiology (theology of religions), digital humanities and computer science, and the history and cultural heritage of the Church. He has extensive experience in full-stack web development for La Civiltà Cattolica, a semi-official periodical of the Holy See.
His research interests lie at the intersection of theology, computing and AI. He considers how theological reflection can inform the development and evaluation of AI, including questions of truthfulness, responsibility and human oversight. He also explores how AI models represent theological concepts and how computational methods can support theological inquiry, with particular attention to their assumptions, interpretive choices and limits.
He draws on his research into AI-use disclosure, authorship and assessment in higher education, informed by human-computer interaction (HCI) and Value Sensitive Design, to explore how human-AI collaboration shapes interpretation and the development of theological understanding. He examines how higher education institutions can distinguish between the quality of a completed work, a person’s contribution to its production and the learning achieved through that process. These interests extend to how research and assessment practices can support intellectual formation, inform pedagogy and contribute meaningfully to knowledge.
Alongside his academic work, he is a photographer and endurance cyclist, having completed two cycling tours of over 1,000 km each, one in Italy (Rome to Milan; see geospatial-photographic web map) and one in China (Wuhan to Tsingtao).
Educational Background
Master of Digital Humanities (MSc), Faculty of Engineering Science, KU Leuven.
Licentiate in Missiology (theology of religions), Faculty of Missiology, Pontifical Gregorian University.
Bachelor’s Degree in History and Cultural Heritage of the Church, Pontifical Gregorian University.
Research Interests
- Theology and AI
- Computing, digital humanities and theology
- The representation of theological meaning in LLMs
- AI, interpretation, authorship and theological pedagogy
Links
Personal website: https://www.yin.roma.it/
