Tom Barlow

Bio

Rev. Barlow has taught as Adjunct Faculty at Iliff since 2011, joining the faculty as Term Assistant Professor in Methodist Studies beginning in the 2023 academic year. Each year, he teaches core Methodist courses including United Methodist History, Doctrine, and Evangelism in Contemporary Contexts as well as other courses related to Christian theology and UM studies.

An Elder in the United Methodist Church, Barlow has served congregations in both Colorado and Wyoming, and has worked with candidates for ministry at both the district and conference levels. He has worked with multiple congregations within the Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church on understanding their roots in the Methodist and Wesleyan/Arminian traditions, seeking to help them envision what the future might hold for their ministry work.

As a theologian, Barlow’s scholarship focuses on the on the operative and co-operative natures of divine grace that are visible in the theologies of John Wesley and Paul Tillich, with a particular emphasis on the ways in which communities might intentionally create space for transformational relationships to occur across differences and human-constructed boundary lines. He continues to explore the origins of the current splintering of United Methodism as he seeks to help others make sense of the historic changes that we are witnessing.