Search

If you’ll be at this year’s annual meetings in Denver for the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature (AAR and SBL), Evangelical Theological Society (ETS), or Institute for Biblical Research (IBR), we invite you to hear from Regent faculty who will be speaking at various times during these events, from November 19 to 23, 2026. 

Schedule of Regent Faculty Speakers

Nov. 19 • 9:30–10:10 am
Jerry Hwang | Speaker (ETS)
“Blot me out of your book (please?)”: Politeness and Misdirection in Moses’ Intercession

Nov. 20 • 1–1:30 pm
Brittany Melton | Speaker (SBL)
Building an Unconventional House: Family in the Book of Ruth

• After a brief overview of family in the ancient Near East, this paper analyzes family life in the book of Ruth. It then observes how the element of surprise features in the story at the point when each character is lost or added to the family unit in an unexpected way. The interdependence of Naomi and Ruth, and then Boaz, is regarded as a wise way to build a house, which fundamentally depends on divine providence. Ultimately the book of Ruth illustrates how an unconventional family is woven together with the ḥesed.

Nov. 21 • 9–11:30 am
Brittany Melton | Chair (SBL)
The Megilloth in the Canon and Its Canonical Contexts

Nov. 21 • 1–3 pm
George Guthrie | Speaker (IBR)
The “Christ Frame” and Canon Consciousness: The Hermeneutic of Hebrews at 2:12-13

Nov. 21 • 1:05–1:30 pm
Jerry Hwang | Respondent (SBL)
Nature and Nature Imagery in the Book of Jeremiah

• This is an invited response to three papers in a joint session of the Jeremiah program unit and Nature Imagery in the Bible program unit. 

Nov. 22 • 5 pm
James Smoker | Speaker (AAR)
Superstition as the Beginning of Participation in Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• In one of his notebooks, the Romantic poet and theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) wrote that superstition was "the Giant Shadow of Humanity with its back to the setting Sun of True Religion." This paper uses Coleridge as a lens to explore the role of superstition in a metaphysics of participation, wherein a combination of ignorance, wonder, and myth serve as the starting point of philosophy. This exploration will then link participation and poetics in two ways. The first is the role of the preternatural in Coleridge's poetry and philosophy, where the unknown in nature manifests in poetry as ambiguous spiritual forces. The second is the vulnerability of the person to supernatural forces beyond explanation, a participatory metaphysic that travels both ways, as expressed by Coleridge in his notebooks and poetry on dreams and nightmares.

Nov. 22 • 1–3:30 pm
Brittany Melton | Speaker (SBL)
Esther and Its Afterlife: Recent Studies in the Book of Esther

Nov. 23 • 7–8:30 am
Paul Spilsbury
Friends of Regent Breakfast

• This is a morning gathering with Regent faculty and friends, hosted by President Paul Spilsbury. Join us to fuel up for the day, catch up with old friends, make new connections, and hear about what’s happening at Regent College. Please RSVP by Monday, November 15.

Nov. 23 • 9–11 am
Jonathan Anderson | Respondent (AAR)
Jonathan Anderson's The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art: Responses and Debates

• This panel convenes an introduction and three critical responses to The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art (Notre Dame Press, 2025), followed by an author’s reply. The book argues that religion and theology, though deeply entangled with modern and contemporary art, have been rendered structurally invisible within dominant art-historical narratives. Respondents engage the work from diverse perspectives, raising questions about interpretive communities, disenchantment, political theology, aesthetic norms, religion’s “strangeness,” and the status of theology as discourse. The author’s response clarifies the concept of multiple interpretive “horizons” and defends a dialogical, non-totalizing approach to theological criticism. Together, the session advances methodological reflection on how religion and theology function within contemporary art studies and explores future directions for scholarship at the intersection of art history and religious studies.

Location: Colorado Convention Center (700 14th Street, Denver, CO)