The 2026 November Annual Meeting in Denver, CO: Friday, November 20 - Tuesday, November 24. All times are listed in Mountain Time Zone. For more information about the November Annual Meeting, co-hosted with the Society of Biblical Literature, click here.
Please note that this is the preliminary schedule and is subject to change. We anticipate a mostly final schedule in mid-August. If you have any questions, please contact annualmeeting@aarweb.org. For Other Events, your event is not confirmed until you received notification from AAR staff.
The DU/Iliff Joint PhD is hosting a reception for faculty, students, alumni, prospective students, and friends from 7pm-9pm on Nov. 22 at Maggiano's Little Italy, 500 16th Street, Ste. 150, Denver. Join us for hors-d'oeuvres and drinks.
Please join Union alumni, faculty, students and friends for a social gathering and chance to meet Union's new President, Rev. Dr. Lisa J. Thompson.
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In many ways, the Modernist Controversy was fought over how to interpret the thought of John Henry Newman. Wilfrid Philip Ward (1856–1916), who was one of Newman’s principal biographers, was concerned for Newman’s reputation in the wake of Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907). This presentation investigates why Wilfrid Ward feared that Newman had been condemned and how he defended Newman’s writings against figures associated with modernism and those associated with anti-modernism. It looks at how Ward adopted, interpreted, and defended John Henry Newman’s theory of doctrinal development during the Roman Catholic modernist controversy. A theological overview of Ward’s project is provided, which is followed by a historical and theological discussion of a series of disagreements that he had with various theologians and commentators who were central to the modernist controversy.
Marie-Joseph Lagrange, OP, was a prominent Roman Catholic biblical exegete at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. A member of the Dominican order he was the founder of the École biblique in Jerusalem. He engaged with modern methods of biblical critical exegesis, but although he was under suspicion, he was never excommunicated. Alfred Loisy, who was at the heart of the modernist controversy, was another prominent Catholic exegete who was a contemporary of Lagrange. This paper will thus examine their work in critical exegesis highlighting similarities and differences between their engagement with modern critical methods.
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Oliver Laxe’s much-acclaimed feature film Sirāt (2025) takes place in an indeterminate but all-too-familiar future, where the outbreak of what might be World War III comes to disrupt an international community of ravers who have gathered in the Moroccan desert to dance. The film asks and leaves unanswered critical questions as to what it means to rave as a religious practice in a world destabilized by political violence, the legacies of colonialism, and the accelerating crisis of stateless refugees. Following a screening of the film, panelists will offer short roundtable reflections from their own areas of expertise, reflecting on three interrelated thematics the film consistently addresses: 1) the discourse of raving as a religious practice; 2) the presence of Islam, and its theologies of spiritual transformation, pilgrimage, and prayer; and 3) the medicinal turn to psychedelics as psychospiritual tools for healing various forms of trauma.
Oliver Laxe’s much-acclaimed feature film Sirāt (2025) takes place in an indeterminate but all-too-familiar future, where the outbreak of what might be World War III comes to disrupt an international community of ravers who have gathered in the Moroccan desert to dance. The film asks and leaves unanswered critical questions as to what it means to rave as a religious practice in a world destabilized by political violence, the legacies of colonialism, and the accelerating crisis of stateless refugees. Following a screening of the film, panelists will offer short roundtable reflections from their own areas of expertise, reflecting on three interrelated thematics the film consistently addresses: 1) the discourse of raving as a religious practice; 2) the presence of Islam, and its theologies of spiritual transformation, pilgrimage, and prayer; and 3) the medicinal turn to psychedelics as psychospiritual tools for healing various forms of trauma.
Join the newly formed Classics and Religious Studies Department for dessert and connect with faculty and friends!
Isaac Oliver, oliver.isaac_w@uqam.ca, 309-621-1469
