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. 

Course Overview

Are you excited about leading a church or organization but dread the fundraising part of your role? This course will help prepare future congregational, non-profit, and advocacy leaders for effective fundraising aligned with their spiritual/values foundations. Students will learn fundraising methodologies grounded in the theology of Christian stewardship and in emerging inclusive principles and practices of democratized, people-centered philanthropy.

In order to be an ethical steward of assets, we need to have a healthy personal relationship with money and be able to communicate that with potential donors. What better way to do that than digging into the theology and spirituality of giving, receiving, and benefitting from mutual reciprocity and right relationship? In this course, we’ll be learning and practicing ways of experienced fundraisers and thought leaders in new paradigms of collective, shared-values fundraising. Whether you’re a church or non-profit leader, advocate for a cause, or political candidate, raising necessary funds starts with a spiritual foundation.

Core themes include:

• An exploration of Biblical and non-Christian perspectives on money and stewardship.
• Consideration of theological issues regarding scarcity and abundance and healing within ourselves.
• The praxis of fundraising, stewardship, and donor acquisition and retention.
• The basics: the role of the nonprofit (whether it be a service organization, church, or other cause), historical contexts, theological foundations, and the essential nature of money.
• The praxis of giving: building healthy and authentic relationships with ourselves and donors, relevant leadership skills, obstacles that are likely to be encountered, and various paradigms and rituals of stewardship.

Course Dates: January 5-26, 2026

Course Format: Online

Registration deadline: December 17, 2025

Investment: $664

To Register: Email registrar@iliff.edu by December 17th

Meet the Instructor: Linda Newell

Linda Newell is an Iliff grad and former Colorado State Senator. She earned a Master’s in Social Justice and Ethics at Iliff School of Theology, where she received the Academic Award for the program that year. While in seminary, she also studied restorative practices and Clinical Pastoral Education in interfaith chaplaincy. During that program, she served as a hospital chaplain specializing in end-of-life care. Because of her learning and deep reflection at Iliff, she focuses her work even more now on empathy and dignity. She is an Adjunct Instructor there, teaching Conscious Conflict and Spiritual Foundations of Fundraising.

Linda is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government and was a Henry Toll Fellow with the Council of State Governments. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from UC Irvine. A lifelong learner, Linda continues to learn cultural humility, deeper systems thinking, and how to align our values and ethics with advocacy for equity and justice.

To Register: Email registrar@iliff.edu by December 17th

Christian Zionism taught by Professor Miguel De La Torre 
Meets Tuesday afternoons 1:00-4:00 pm MT

This course examines the emergence and development of Christian Zionism as a manifestation of white supremacy. Attention is given to its global implications and how dissent is silenced. Special attention is given to Christian Zionism’s historical, political, and religious development and how it intersects with the Eurocentric colonial project. The course will concentrate on the current Middle Eastern conflict through the writings of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim scholars.

Course Dates: February 2 – May 15, 2026

Course Format: Hy-flex, meaning they meet for the same 3 hours each week. You can come to campus or may attend virtually. Hy-flex classes will not meet in weeks 5, 6, and 13 (the weeks of March 2, March 9, and April 27).

Registration deadline: January 16, 2025

Investment: $996

To Register: Email registrar@iliff.edu by February 2nd

Liberating Sex taught by Professor Miguel De La Torre
Meets Tuesday mornings 9:00 am – 12:00 PM MT

The purpose of the course is to find guidelines for developing an ethical sexual lifestyle that is aware of how racism, classism, and specifically sexism influences the current conversation on sexual ethics. The course’s focus will be on developing healthy models that foster intimacy and vulnerability for a disjointed and at times oppressive community. 

Sexuality is an important issue that everyone must face. To explore sexuality from the margins of society, specifically those who are normally oppressed can be jarring to those accustomed to their privilege based on a normative way of thinking. To approach this topic from the margins of power forces us to move beyond religious assumptions that fuse and confuse opinions of sexuality with liberative ways with which to engage sexuality. Liberating sex provides an approach to dealing with issues of sexuality that can be quite liberating.

Course Dates: February 2 – May 15, 2026

Course Format: Hy-flex, meaning they meet for the same 3 hours each week. You can come to campus or may attend virtually. Hy-flex classes will not meet in weeks 5, 6, and 13 (the weeks of March 2, March 9, and April 27).

Registration deadline: January 16, 2025

Investment: $996

To Register: Email registrar@iliff.edu by February 2nd

Theological Anthropology and Technology taught by Professor Ted Vial
Meets Wednesday afternoons, 1:00-4:00 pm MT

Homo sapiens has always been created by technology as much as they have created technology. This course examines the traditional theological topic of theological anthropology in a digital age. How does our current socio-technical system shape what it means to be human? How are human relationships mediated in a world infused with AI? To what extent can concepts we use to think about our humanity (agency, attention, creativity, etc.) be applied to machines? How do machine metaphors change how we think about ourselves when they inevitably return to be applied to us?

Course Dates: February 2 – May 15, 2026

Course Format: Hy-flex, meaning they meet for the same 3 hours each week. You can come to campus or may attend virtually. Hy-flex classes will not meet in weeks 5, 6, and 13 (the weeks of March 2, March 9, and April 27).

Registration deadline: January 16, 2025

Investment: $996

To Register: Email registrar@iliff.edu by February 2nd

Judaism taught by Professor Pamela Eisenbaum 
Meets on campus on the afternoon of March 5 and the morning of March 6, 2026.  The rest of the course will be through weekly interactive Canvas assignments.

This course serves as a basic introduction to Judaism in terms of its history, people, culture, and religious practices and beliefs. It assumes no previous knowledge of Judaism.

Course objectives/outcomes:

• Develop familiarity with Jewish beliefs and practices on their own terms and develop critical awareness of how Christian perception of Judaism differs from Jews’ perception.
• Develop a historical overview of Judaism and understand that Judaism is not coterminous with the religion of the Hebrew Bible. It is a dynamic religious tradition.
• Understand the varieties of Judaism in contemporary America.
• Understand the significance of the Holocaust and contemporary attitudes toward Israel/Palestine among American Jews.
• Learn about Christian anti-Judaism and its relationship to antisemitism

Course Dates: February 2 – May 15, 2026

Course Format: Hybrid, meaning it will have readings, assignments, and posting in weeks 1-4, will meet on campus March 5 and 6 for a total of 6 hours, and will have additional interactive online coursework weeks 7-15.

Registration deadline: January 16, 2025

Investment: $996

To Register: Email registrar@iliff.edu by February 2nd