Iliff remains committed to social justice and equity, and as part of Iliff’s response to this moment, please go to our Black Lives Matter page. This page expresses more than this moment in time. It also expresses Iliff’s commitment to participate in generating the mighty stream that will move our country closer to justice.

Thank you for engaging with Iliff. I look forward to continuing our efforts together as we elevate the core essence of Iliff in our changing expectations of today’s society and advancing Iliff’s mission.

The world continues to present more and more challenges to Iliff students as we continue to see a rise in COVID-19 cases in our country.

This spring, Iliff Senior Leadership and the Student Senate recognized the emergency financial needs of students and established the Iliff Student Emergency Fund.

The Iliff community of donors responded by investing in the establishment of this financial resource for current and future Iliff students, and for this we are ever grateful.

This fund was created during the rise of our current pandemic but with a vision to help students in any financial emergency now and into the future. As of July 2020, $41,035.00 has been raised with 164 donors supporting this important effort. 39 of those donors were current students gathering together to support other students exemplifying the Iliff communities' care for one another.

Already this year, 11 students have been granted a combined $11,123.00 in emergency funds to address their current situation. We anticipate students will continue to face new hardships and unforeseen circumstances heading into the fall quarter, and we continue to encourage students to apply for funding as these needs are discovered. Iliff is dedicated to handling these requests with great care for confidentiality and with a quick response to help students meet their immediate needs.

Thank you to supporters of the Iliff Student Emergency Fund. We are dedicated to assisting our students so their educational journey can continue as smoothly as possible.

Dr. Ted Vial, Harvey Potthoff Professor of Theology and Modern Western Religious Thought, is taking on a new role at Iliff, Vice President of Innovation, Learning, and Institutional Research.

Vial holds a B.A. from Brown University and a M.A. and Ph.D. from The University of Chicago. He has won several awards for teaching both undergraduate and graduate students. His scholarship is in the areas of religion, race, and gender. Most recently he served as the Associate Dean for Curriculum and Institutional Research at Iliff, and as Senior Researcher and What's a Human Really? Officer at Iliff's Artificial Intelligence Institute. Learn more about Vial.

Dr. Miguel De La Torre, Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at Iliff, will lead a course this fall, "Ethics in an Age of Plagues, Pestilence, and Pandemics," which is open to alumni and the public to audit.

Dr. Philip Butler was appointed Term Assistant Professor of Theology and Black Posthuman Artificial Intelligence Systems this summer.

Butler previously held the position of Visiting Assistant Professor of Theological Studies at the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, where he taught since 2017.

He spoke at Iliff's Renewal Conference in February 2020 and participated at the inaugural event of Iliff's AI Institute in May, 2019.

"Dr. Butler brings knowledge, experiences, and vision that will deepen our excellent degree programs, and significantly enhance Iliff's work with new learners," said Iliff President Tom Wolfe. "At Iliff, Dr. Butler will work with the AI Institute, generously funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, as well as teach courses for our degree programs and public audience as a member of the faculty."

Butler's interdisciplinary work, deep love for Black communities, and desire to construct digital consciousnesses associated with racial and cultural identities is directed towards making difference normative in emergent technologies and future existence. He is the founder of the Seekr Project, a distinctly Black conversational artificial intelligence agent with mental health capacities, combining machine learning and psychotherapeutic systems.

Butler received his B.A. from Morehouse College, M.Div. from the Candler School of Theology of Emory University, and M.A. and Ph.D. from the Claremont School of Theology. His teaching and research interests include theology, spiritual formation, neuroscience and spirituality, black studies, ethics, and technology.

Rev. Dr. Jennifer S. Leath, Assistant Professor of Religion and Social Justice and Director of the MASJE Degree Program, published an article entitled, "The Perpetual Cycle of However: Soul in the Fight for Racial Justice" in the Gerorgetown University Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs' Berkley Forum.

The piece starts, "Justice is a moving target, and with each victory justice claims there is a 'however.' The Emancipation Proclamation was declared in 1863; however, those enslaved in Galveston did not receive word of liberation until 1865. We have celebrated Juneteenth since June 19, 1865; however, the pronouncement did not block the course of racism into the present day."

Read the full article here.

Bridging concerns of religious ethics and African American studies, much of her current writing and teaching focuses on the sexual ethics and economies of historically Black churches and Afro-Diasporic religion in the United States. Learn more about Leath's work.

Dr. Eric C. Smith (PhD '13), Assistant Professor of Early Christianity and Contemporary Christian Practices at Iliff, recently published a book, Paul the Progressive?: The Compassionate Christian’s Guide to Reclaiming the Apostle as an Ally.

In Paul the Progressive?, Smith revisits an often misunderstood Paul in light of modern biblical scholarship, telling the story of a Paul who challenged the norms of his day, broke down barriers of gender and ethnicity, and re-imagined God’s plan for the world in terms of radical inclusion and salvation available to everyone.

Read more about the book in an article that The Presbyterian Outlook recently published.

Smith teaches in the fields of the history of Christianity and biblical studies. His research focuses on material aspects of Christianity before Constantine, especially the art, architecture, and communal life of Pauline and Roman churches. Other interests include identity formation, materialist theories of religion, biblical reception and exegesis, and spatial theory. Learn more about Smith's work.

Dr. Julie Todd (PhD '12), scholar-activist and John Wesley Iliff Senior Adjunct Lecturer in Justice and Peace Studies at the Iliff School of Theology, recently published a book, 50: Thorns & Blossoms.

Todd shares 50 of her writings in the book. Most pieces are in a poetic prose style – a predominantly long-form, stream-of-consciousness writing from journal entries and writing groups – alongside a few lengthier prose essays and previously published works. 

We recently warmly welcomed 56 new graduates from the Class of 2020 into the Iliff alumni community.

With the global pandemic making it impossible to gather, Iliff held its first-ever virtual commencement ceremony on June 4, which was attended by more than 425 students, families, and friends. The celebration may have been virtual, but the milestone was real—and no less tremendous despite the fact that we could not gather in person.

The commencement address was a public conversation between two lifelong friends, Mayor Wellington Webb and Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley. They spoke to the class of 2020 from their leadership and social justice experience. Mr. Webb spent 12 years as the mayor of Denver from 1991 to 2003 and is a significant influencer in Colorado and the national Democratic Party. Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley is a member of the Iliff President's Advisory Council and attended high school in Denver with Mayor Webb. Rev. Dr. Durley is a national leader in the environmental justice movement.

This year's commencement ceremony is sure to inspire your spirit. You are invited to view the commencement ceremony video recording, as well as the commencement day print program, at iliff.edu/commencement2020.

Iliff offers a curated set of pandemic resources for those serving in leadership, whether in a church or a non-profit. Visit the Pandemic Toolbox at resource.iliff.edu.

Pandemic Religion documents the many ways that American religious communities have been challenged and reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the midst of the crisis, religious communities have published many spiritual responses to illness, death, and unemployment. Most of this information, however, will be lost if we don’t retain a record of it. 

Pandemic Religion collects images, videos, audio files, texts, and more from religious communities and individuals. Here are some ideas of what you could contribute:

Pandemic Religion was started by John G. Turner (Department of Religious Studies) and Lincoln Mullen (Department of History and Art History) at George Mason University. 

Sam Fisher felt led to pursue full-time ministry in the United Methodist Church for many years.

"I am a pretty big picture kind of person, and I see every class and person at Iliff as part of the larger puzzle in the work of ministry. I love being United Methodist because of our deep commitment to education and the relationships between our institutions of higher education."

Read more about Fisher on Iliff's Stories webpage.

David Dashifen Kees, "Dash," first heard about Iliff from an alumna when seated next to each other on a plane flight. They had both attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Salt Lake City, Utah, and were flying home to the Baltimore-Washington area.

Kees was drawn to Iliff's Journey program that allows students to earn a degree from their home community. "I can honestly say that the Journey program is amazing. My wife and I have been married for almost 15 years, and she has a nice, stable job as a veterinarian in Virginia. Without the Journey program, we would have had to have a much more fraught conversation about how to accomplish my educational goals vis-à-vis her job in one state and Iliff two-thirds of a continent away."

Kees says, "At Iliff I am surprised by how much I am challenged in my own faith. Most forms of Paganism are very individualistic, by which I mean to say: if you put two Pagans in a room, even from the same tradition or from the same group, you will hear two different ways to be a Pagan. In some ways, this creates a custom-fit spirituality that can be comfy like a favorite sweater, but like that sweater, it may be a bit thinner in some places than others. Studying the great theological debates of the last few thousand years or discussing the intersection between race and racism and religion has forced me to examine and re-examine parts of myself that I thought were built on firmer spiritual foundations."

Read more about Dash's story on Iliff's Stories webpage.