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Matthew

Reading Matthew, Identifying Discourses: A Closer Look at the “Six-Discourse” Proposal

In a February blog post for the Theopolis Institute, Benoît Engel offers a thought-provoking challenge to the widely accepted five-discourse structure of Matthew’s Gospel, proposing a sixth discourse in Matthew 21:28–22:14 to reframe the Gospel’s chiastic center. As someone deeply invested in Matthew’s literary design—explored in my book Reading Matthew,…

by Jonathan SedlakJune 26, 2025
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2 Timothy

Avoid Foolish Disputes

Avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and useless. Titus 3:9 Out of a deep love and care for the church, Paul tells Titus and those in the church to avoid four specific things: foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law.…

by Grant Van BrimmerJune 24, 2025
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Baptism

The Indispensable Mark of Worship: Infant Baptism

Theopolis publishes many polemics, especially on the Sacraments. This piece does not necessarily reflect the views of Theopolis, her board, or her editors. -JW Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days.He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the…

by Tommy ThompsonJune 19, 2025
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American Culture

Ecclesiocentric Life is Back

There is in the United States and the Western World some sort of religious revival occurring. Gen Z men—males born between ca 1997 and 2012—are flooding back in to churches. USA Today noted that Gen Z men—and to a lesser degree women—attending churches more than their millennial predecessors and they…

by Miles SmithJune 17, 2025
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Biblical Studies

Sceptical Text-Critical Hypotheses

The primary task of many Biblical scholars (as they see it) is to explain how and why the Biblical text acquired its final form—i.e., what source material it used, how that material was expanded/redacted, who expanded/redacted it, why they did so, what the weather was like at the time, etc.…

by James BejonJune 12, 2025
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Galatians

Flesh & Spirit in Galatia

Galatians 5:5-15 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from…

by Jeff MeyersJune 10, 2025

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TheoUrban Dreams

The following was delivered as a Convocation Address at the beginning of the 2017-18 Theopolis Institute's Junior Fellows Program on August 14, 2017 . Theopolis is the embodiment of a dream. Our name expresses the contents of that dream. We dream of a polis , a city. Every city is…

August 15, 2017

Hearts Prepared

Hezekiah's Passover (2 Chronicles 30) has a prominent place in the Chronicler's account of his reign. As William Johnstone points out ( 1 & 2 Chronicles ), Hezekiah's reign moves out from the temple to the city to the nations. He reopens and purifies the house of Yahweh (2 Chronicles…

August 15, 2017

Welcome to Leithart

Welcome to Leithart the blog. For those who are coming to the blog for the first time, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Peter Leithart, President of the Theopolis Institute , a study center and leadership training program based in Birmingham, Alabama. After spending several decades in the…

August 14, 2017
Gratitude

Pillars of Gratitude

Philip Watkins ( Gratitude and the Good Life ) identifies three “pillars of gratitude.” These are components of gratitude as an emotional “trait,” as opposed to gratitude expressed in response to specific good received or as an emotional state: “These are presumed to be three subordinate facets that contribute to…

August 11, 2017

Inventing “Emotion”

No one before the twentieth century, writes Robert Solomon ( The Passions ), paid serious philosophical attention to the emotions. There's a good reason for that, writes Thomas Dixon ( From Passions to Emotions ): The category “emotion” didn't exist prior to the 19th century. Between 1800 and 1850, there…

August 11, 2017
Epistemology

Dehumanizing Skepticism

God made us to be knowers. We long to know. Esther Meek argues ( Longing to Know ) that the frustration of this desire is one of the effects of skepticism and relativism: “To be human is to make sense of experience. There are voices today that would discourage the…

August 11, 2017

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