Program

2026 AAR/RBS Rocky Mountain–Great Plains Regional Conference

All conference sessions will be held in the Cucharas House (CH). Lunch, Special Roundtable Discussions, and Plenary sessions will be in Kettle Creek (KC).

Chair:

Jason Combs (Brigham Young University)

Presenters:

Eliza Rohda (York University), “Paul as Anti-Imperialist? Status Quaestionis of Interpretations of Romans 13:1–7”

Robert Flores (Brigham Young University), “The Response of John 6 the Bread of Life Discourse to Synoptic Tradition”

Warren Johnson (Brigham Young University), “Peculium: The Socio-Economic Context of Matthew 18:23-35”

Moderator: 

Tyrel Sorensen (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology)

Panelists:

Marisa Hulstine (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology), “The Student Movement for Palestine within the Belly of the Beast: Transnational Postcolonial Feminist Theology in Practice”

Caralyn Ware (Iliff School of Theology), “The Empty Cup & The Reservoir: A Feminist Theological Perspective on the Postcolonial “Self-Care” Construct”

Angela Molloy (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology), “Forgotten Bodies in the Postcolonial Feminist Framework of Belief: A Vision for Disability Justice in Viewing Kwok Pui-lan’s Jesus / Christ as the Disabled God”

Chair: 

Joseph Foltz (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology)

Presenters:

Kev Grane (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology), “Language and Humanity: A Critical Analysis of White Christian Nationalism”

Mel All-Smith (University of Denver & Iliff School of Theology), “Vaccine Hesitancy Among White Christian Nationalists, Effects on Public Health, and Finding a Way Forward to Higher Rates of Vaccination”

Brad Crowell (Drake University), “They Want to Destroy Everything that is Good: Constructing the Enemy with Christian Nationalist Podcasts”

Chair: 

Joe Charnes (Temple Aaron)

Presenters:

Galen L. Goldsmith (Independent Scholar), “Exegetes of Exodus Divine Name Oracles”

Amy L. Balogh (Regis University), “The Little Censer that Could: The Limitations of Yahweh’s Relationship to the Purity System in the Priestly Source”

Thalia Peterson (Brigham Young University), “The Legal Function of Psalm 2: ANE Adoption-Grant Traditions and Israelite Kingship”

Chair: 

Kirsten Dalquist (University Of Denver/Iliff School Of Theology)

Presenters:

Josh Perez (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology), “The Shape of Cinema: Love, Water, and Religious Imagination”

Darrell Dooyema and Jared Dooyema (University of Colorado Colorado Springs), “The Audiological Argument for the Existence of God: How Music Points us to a Divine Creator”

Brad Hale (Azusa Pacific University), “Love and Sex in a Time of Crisis: Christians the Sexual Revolution in 1968”

Chair: 

Marisa Hulstine (University Of Denver/Iliff School Of Theology)

Presenters:

Dennis Saavedra Carquin-Hamichand (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology), “Liberative Decolonial Ethics and Suicide Prevention in Guyana”

Claire Balmas (University of Colorado Denver), “Hugo Chavez: Superstition, Magic, and Political Power in Venezuela”

Kev Grane (University of Denver & Iliff School of Theology), “Post-Millennialism in Black Liberation Theology”

Indira Saha (University of Colorado Denver), “Cooking Under Constraint: Widowhood, Ritual Purity, and Identity in Colonial Bengal”

Moderator: 

Christy Cobb (University of Denver)

Panelists:

Ayla Ozarslan (University of Denver), “Neoplatonic Thought and Divine Mediation in the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas and Philip”

Amelia Broderick King (University of Denver), “Euclia as the New Lilith: Redeeming Hebrew Biblical Women Through the Apocryphal Acts of Andrew”

Ira Zukerman (University of Denver), “Ancient Jewish and Christian Views on Resurrection in the Apocryphal Acts”

Angela Molloy and Joseph Foltz (University of Denver & Iliff School of Theology), “The Healing and Un-healing of Peter’s Paralyzed Daughter: Liberative Disability Ethics and the Coptic Act of Peter”

Chair and Respondent: 

Paul Harvey (University of Colorado Colorado Springs)

Discussants:

Jeffrey Scholes (University of Colorado Colorado Springs)

Steph Vigil (Citizens Project and Former Colorado Springs House District 16 Representative)

Lee Ann Bryce (Head Minister, First Congregational Church, Colorado   Springs)

Moderator:

Dominic Sur (Utah State University)

Panelists:

Dominic Sur (Utah State University), “Systematized Unreality: Non-Normative Logic in Old School Buddhism”

Yaroslav Komarovski (University of Nebraska – Lincoln), “What is Transformed on the Way to Enlightenment? Tibetan Buddhist Polemics on the Means and Objects of Transformation in Tantric Practice”

Trang Nyuyen (University of Vienna), “Drukpa Kagyü in Vietnam: Foundations, Development, Future Prospects”

Elise VanDenBerghe (Utah State University), “Between Exaltation & Exclusion: Tantric Buddhism’s Paradoxical Representation of the Feminine”

Chair: 

Josh Perez (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology)

Presenters:

Krista Brown (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology), “Dancing the Sacred Without a God: Ritualization and the Ecstatic Dance Church”

M. L. Case (Bethany College), “Ḥērem as Public Regulation of Bodies: A Sociological Analysis of Judges 19–21”

Lex (Alexis) Dunbar (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology), “Embodied Eschatos and Nonbinary Realities: Exploring Gender, Theology, and Embodiment”

Sara C Winter (New School University), “Exploring Two Questions about Nazirites”

Chair: 

Joe Charnes (Temple Aaron)

Presenters:

Jason Robert Combs (Brigham Young University), “Luke-Acts in the context of Second Sophistic Dream-Narratives”

Amber M. Dillon (Denver Seminary), “More than Characters: Intertextual Characterization in the Gospel of John”

Wesley Hurd (University of Denver), “The Gnostic Question and Embodiment in Acts of John”

Jael Shumaker (Denver Seminary), “Floods and Flames: An Ecological Reading of 2 Peter 3:3–15”

Chair: 

Paul Harvey (University of Colorado Colorado Springs)

Presenters:

Zachary Simpson (University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma), “From the Confession to the Reel:  How Modernity Re-Coded Religious Penitence”

Grayson Highsmith (University of Denver), “Meeting God Before Believing: How Secular Rationalism Eroded Belief and Enabled Psychedelic Religions in the West”

Erik M. Hanson (University of Colorado Colorado Springs), “Kierkegaardian Anxiety and Hereditary Sin after Kantian Radical Evil”

Chair: 

Erik Hanson (University of Colorado Colorado Springs)

Presenters:

Philip T. Nicholson (Independent Scholar), “How Jesus, Buddha & Muhammed Transformed Their Legacies of Child Trauma”

Sandra Lee Dixon (University of Denver), “Schema Theory and Psychological Study of Religion and Moral Life”

Roger Green (Metropolitical State University), “Catalyzing Miracles: Mysticism & Psychedelics”

Chair: 

Cara Ware (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology)

Presenters:

Joe Charnes (Temple Aaron), “Prepositional Misappropriation of Paul ‘within’ Judaism: A Rabbinic Propositional Plea for a Contrastive ‘without,’ Part 2”

Sara C Winter (New School University), “An Approach to Acts as a Resource for Pauline Chronology”

Joseph Foltz (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology), “Visualizing Saint Thecla’s Relics: Image, Provenance, and Presence in Medieval Iberia”

Chair: 

Naomi Leyh (University of Denver-Iliff School of Theology)

Presenters:

Elyse Pierce (University of Denver-Iliff School of Theology), “Natural Numbers and Sacred Time: Ancient Near Eastern Religious Calendrical Systems”

Darby Alvarenga (University College London), “Goddesses and Women: The Impact of Yahwism on Iron Age Women, Religion, and Cultural Identity”

Daniel Lapidus (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology), “The Long Shadow of Marcion and the Development of Christian Anti-Judaism”

Moderator: 

Dheepa Sundaram (University of Denver)

Panelists:

Deeptangshu Das (University of Denver-Iliff School of Theology), “Queering Tarot, Queering Tantra: A Case Study of Indian Tarot Channels on YouTube”

Sho McClarence (Iliff School of Theology), “Reclamation of the Witch: An Exploration of 21st Century Witchcraft”

Kimberly Melgoza (University of Denver-Iliff School of Theology), “Devil Worship or Just Indigenous Religion?: Analysis of Tlacatecolotl in the Florentine Codex”

David Kemp (University of Denver-Iliff School of Theology), “Neopagan Identities on Tumblr: Religious Organization Without Hierarchy”

Moderator: 

Dheepa Sundaram (University of Denver)

Discussants:

Jason Jeffries (University of Denver)

Allyson Shortle (University of Oklahoma)

Zachary Simpson (University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma)

Chair: 

Jordan Kokot (University of Colorado Colorado Springs)

Presenters:

David Gardiner (Colorado College), “The Surprising Power of Jeffrey Kripal's Use of the Two Words ‘Super Natural’ For Describing Religious Phenomena and More”

Tyrel Sorensen (University of Denver - Iliff School of Theology), “Delineating Divination: A Qualitative Approach to Divination Studies”

Kirsten Dalquist (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology), “Stewardship Contested: Perspectives in the Evangelical Climate Change Debate”

Chair:

Jason Combs (Brigham Young University)

Presenters:

Kevin Bigheti (Brigham Young University), “Reassessing the Audience of the Fourth Gospel: A Critique of the Johannine Community Construct”

Markham Brown (Brigham Young University), “YHWH: The Present God of the Ancestors and the Exodus”

Llilawyn Turrentine (University of Colorado Colorado Springs), “Multiple Universes to Support a Natural Creation: An Objection to Robin Collins’ the Anthropic Teleological Argument”

Chair: 

David Kemp (University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology)

Presenters:

[moved to new panel] Laurie Fisher (University of Denver), “One Measure of Magic: Centering Women in Rabbinic Encounters with Sorceresses”

Anna Zabraniak (University of Wrocław) “In the Search for Universal Judaism. Elements of Natural Religion in the Translations of maskilim in the Early Congress Kingdom of Poland (1815-1863)”

Danielle Matthews (University of Denver), “Incense and Ink: Material Practice and Intercultural Identity in Asian Jewish Diasporas”

Moderator: 

Jeffrey Scholes (University of Colorado Colorado Springs)

Panelists:

Patrick Bowen (Indivisible Colorado), “A Preliminary History of the Church’s Relationship to Colorado’s “No Kings” Movement”

Rev. Sherri Fry (Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church), “Bold and Compassionate: How Faith Comes Alive in a Presbyterian Church”

Kelly Hupfield, JD (Justice and Action Committee-Arvada United Methodist Church), “Doing What Is Ours to Do: Forming a Justice Committee in a Suburban United Methodist Church”

Rev. Dr. Ken Bedell (Indivisible Westminster), “Social Scientists and Theologians”