Non-Degree Courses for Audit: Graduate Theological Education for Lifelong Learners

Iliff School of Theology has offered graduate level education for more than 125 years through a range of degree programs. Now, through course auditing, Iliff is bringing its unique approach to theological education to a broader community.

Explore Iliff’s world-class teaching outside of a traditional degree program. Auditing a course allows you to view lectures, participate in discussions, and access course materials, all while focusing on personal growth and intellectual curiosity. Audited courses do not contribute towards Iliff degree requirements or transfer academic credit. 

June 1-July 24, 2026. 

Online asynchronous with optional weekly synchronous sessions
Investment for Auditors: $996

Course Description:

Christian traditions of contemplation are quite varied in their expression, including individual and communal traditions of singing, movement, imagination, and internal silence. This course will explore and analyze both contemporary and historic traditions through a combination of practice, reflection on practice, and teaching of practice. Throughout the course we will be assessing how persons in the traditions use key terms, including “contemplation”.

This 8-week-long intensive course earns 3 semester credits by engaging students for 2 hours each day, 7 days a week from June 1 through July 24, 2026.  Students will spend 30 minutes daily in a contemplative practice, 60 minutes reading the assignment for the day, and 30 minutes writing a journal entry, a post for the course, or preparing their final project. DMin students will have an assignment that deepens course engagement to the doctoral level.

To Register: Email registrar@iliff.edu by May 25, 2026

June 15 – July 24, 2026

Online with one weekly required synchronous session on Tuesdays, 5-6:00 pm MT

Course Description: This course is based on the work of Dr. Christa Sharpe and her book “In the Wake – On Blackness and Being” who asks the question: “how do you memorialize an event that is still ongoing?” Dr. Sharpe contends that “blackness” becomes the symbol for those deemed less–than-human beings and are condemned to death. This six- week course delivered virtually will offer to those who are interested in Death Care Work and certification as a “Death Doula” an opportunity to begin to understand the lived experience of African and African diasporic people as they navigate life and death using the theory of “wake work”.

“Wake Work”, as a theory and a praxis of Black “being” in the African diaspora pays attention to mourning and the mourning work that takes place on local trans local and global levels. Similar to the ritual of holding a “wake” engaged in by many communities after a death, a wake and “wake work” allows the community to celebrate the life of someone that has died, honoring them by remembering their life story and involves caring for family members after the death assisting in their mourning process.

“Wake Work” also means being conscious. Conscious of the lived experiences of a people that finds themselves in what is known as “protracted grief” and as it relates to African in America “Maafa” experience (trans-atlantic slave experience) “protracted slave syndrome” as noted by Dr. Lee Butler and how Dr. Sharpe understands Black Death. “Wake Work” gives those who are “awake” and those who are interested in understanding and enhancing their knowledge of death care work, the opportunity to re/see, re/inhabit, and re/image the world of care for a community and care for African and African Diasporic individuals before, during, and after death.

Meet the Instructor: Dr. Beverly Wallace

Dr. Beverly Wallace is the Manager of Academics of the Sankofa Center for African Studies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She has held faculty positions at two Historical Black Theological Institutions: The Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, Georgia and Shaw University Divinity School in Raleigh, North Carolina. Dr. Wallace is also a former Associate Professor of Congregational Care at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota and is currently an adjunct professor of Marriage and Family at New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Dr. Wallace is the co-author of the book, “African American Grief” published and republished by Routledge Press in their classic series. She also co-authored “Narratives of grieving African Americans about Racism in the Lives of Deceased Family Members” as well as the author of several articles including “The Tragic Vision of the Black Church during COVID: Everything is Going to be Alright” and “Boa Morte: Reclaiming Kali – Reframing Death”. Her dissertation was entitled “Religion and Spirituality as Resources for End-of-Life Care in the African American Family”.

Dr. Wallace has close relationship with “CareDoula Education” an End-of-Life and Death Doula educational organization, is a former member of the Minnesota Chapter of the Association of Death Educators, and has taught “Foundations of Death Care” as part of Iliff’s School of Theology’s Death Care Collective.

In addition to teaching “Foundations of Death Care”, Dr. Wallace has also taught courses on Grief and Loss; Death and Dying, and African American Grief and have presented at Hospice Foundations of America as well as the ADEC (Association of Death Educators) National Conference. Dr. Wallace is also a former hospital chaplain. Her International and African Diasporic involvement includes work in Brazil on a project entitled “Blackness in Church and Society”. She is also a member of the Educational Committee of the Lutheran University in Liberia, a liaison to United Theological College in Zimbabwe and is a member of the Conference of International Black Lutherans. She’s extremely proud to have been involved in the successful completion of her student’s thesis on “Understanding the Grief Experiences of Myanmar Women Refugees in the U.S”.

To Register: Email registrar@iliff.edu by June 8, 2026