Theopolis Institute

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Theopolis Institute Theopolis Institute teaches men and women to lead cultural renewal by renewing the church. God’s heavenly city resurrects the cities of men.

Theopolis comes from two Greek words, “God” and “city.” We believe that the Spirit of God works through faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word, through vibrant, rich, transformative Liturgy, and through courageous and diligent pastoral leadership to form the church into an image of the future city of God. The Theopolis Institute, based in Birmingham, Alabama. was founded in 2012 by Dr. Peter Leithart and Rev. James Jordan, but our work began two decades earlier. Since the early 1990s, a small group of pastors and theologians, led by James Jordan, has been gathering for the Biblical Horizons conferences in a small town in the Panhandle of Florida. Quietly and slowly, the seeds we planted grew and a fresh form of Reformed Christianity began taking root. Dozens of churches in the U.S. and across the globe now combine rich liturgical life with solid biblical teaching and rigorous pastoral care. The Theopolis Institute perpetuates the Biblical Horizons agenda of church reformation and cultural transformation into the future. We offer a vision that we believe can and should shape the churches of the future – a thoroughly sacramental and Trinitarian theology and church practice, solidly rooted in Scripture, combined with unreserved catholicity that draws from all traditions of the church. We accomplish this aim principally by providing affordable, graduate-level leadership training courses, focusing on biblical and liturgical theology. For the first several years of our existence, we are sponsoring intensive week-long training sessions, both in the United States and in other locations throughout the world. We believe that the church is the center of God’s action in the world, and that the liturgy is the heart of the church. To be effective in mission and ministry, churches need to be biblically rooted, liturgically vibrant, catholic, and culturally aware. A weakness in one area will necessarily produce weakness in others. Bible

Theopolis trains men and women to discover and bring out all the treasures of God’s word by insisting that Christians take the Bible on its own terms. Liturgy

A joyful liturgy saturated in Scripture and Psalm-singing, centered on the Eucharistic feast, draws us into the symbolic world of the Bible, gives us our bearings, and impresses on us a scriptural pattern of life to be taken out into the world. Culture

Because the church is an outpost of God’s future city in the present, called to transform the cities of men, our cultural and political crises can be addressed only as the Church becomes more fully and faithfully herself.

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Donations may be sent to:
Theopolis Institute
PO Box 36476
Birmingham, AL 35236

Peter J. Leithart serves as President and Director of the Theopolis Institute. Leithart (PhD, Cambridge, 1998) is the author of nearly thirty books, has published widely in academic and popular journals, and taught theology for fifteen years at New St. Andrews College, Moscow, Idaho. He has a joint appointment as Director of the Institute and Senior Fellow of Theology and Literature at NSA. The Theopolis Institute is a 501(c)3 and operates in conjunction with Trinity Presbyterian Church, 3251 Greendale Road, Birmingham, AL 35243.

Episode 902:Deborah’s Song: Singing the Lord’s Victory (Judges 5:1–5)Does the church’s singing put kings on notice?Debor...
10/21/2026

Episode 902:
Deborah’s Song: Singing the Lord’s Victory
(Judges 5:1–5)

Does the church’s singing put kings on notice?

Deborah’s song proclaims God’s victory to the nations and summons His people to battle.

Peter Leithart, Jeff Meyers, James Bejon, and Alastair Roberts begin their discussion of Judges 5, exploring how Deborah’s song celebrates the Lord’s victory and summons Israel to faithful action. The

A New Taxonomy of Protestant Political Theologyby: Miles SmithChristians debating politics may disagree less about polic...
10/20/2026

A New Taxonomy of Protestant Political Theology
by: Miles Smith

Christians debating politics may disagree less about policy than about the church itself.

Is the church one institution alongside the state, or the society that sets the pattern for the nations?

A closer look at the divide shaping Protestant political theology.

Debates over common-good conservatism versus classical liberalism are back in the news, and this time, Evangelicals are weighing in. Since 2020, Evangelical Protestants have woken up to the essential interrelationship between politics and religion. The quietism of the Evangelicals’ fundamentalist ...

“Jesus has blazed the trail through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and where he goes, we go.”From Adam’s deep sleep ...
10/15/2026

“Jesus has blazed the trail through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and where he goes, we go.”

From Adam’s deep sleep to Christ’s resurrection, Jonah Barnes traces Scripture’s pattern of death, awakening, and glory in “The Sleep of Death.”

Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, […]

Why was Jesus’ tunic left intact while the temple veil was torn?Erin Joslyn explores the biblical pattern of torn garmen...
10/13/2026

Why was Jesus’ tunic left intact while the temple veil was torn?

Erin Joslyn explores the biblical pattern of torn garments and what the rending of the veil reveals about the Father.

Men in Scripture tore their clothing in moments of great passion and distress. Job tore his clothing when he lost his sons and daughters and everything he owned. Jacob tore his clothes when he believed that a wild animal devoured his beloved son Joseph. David tore his clothes when his son Absalom ki...

That Paul says that the crossing of the sea is a “baptism” is surprising enough; but then he says that the baptism is “i...
10/12/2026

That Paul says that the crossing of the sea is a “baptism” is surprising enough; but then he says that the baptism is “into the cloud.” Where’d he get that?

You can suss that out from the exodus story, but I suspect that Paul has conflated the exodus story with the procedures for sacrifice. Leviticus 1:9 says that the legs and entrails of an ascension offering are first “washed with water” and then “turned to smoke.” The washing is immediately followed by a transfiguration into cloud. Sacrificial animals were literally “baptized into the cloud.”

So also are we: Baptized into the cloud of witnesses that surrounds the throne, baptized into the company of angels that constitutes the glory of God, baptized into the cloud that is the Spirit-presence of the Son, baptized into sacrificial ministry, baptized to ascend, clothed in smoke and fire, into the Lord’s presence.
- Peter Leithart

“The differences between men and women are, by creation design, fundamentally liturgical..."James Jordan explores what E...
10/09/2026

“The differences between men and women are, by creation design, fundamentally liturgical..."

James Jordan explores what Eden teaches us about men, women, and worship.

Click HERE for an audio version of this article. For Part 2, click HERE. The ordination of women to the Christian ministry, specifically the pastoral office of overseeing worship and performing preaching and the Lord’s Supper, is a recent development in Church history. From the early church until ...

The Theopolis PodcastEpisode 900How does AI shape our habits, relationships, and understanding of what it means to be hu...
10/07/2026

The Theopolis Podcast
Episode 900

How does AI shape our habits, relationships, and understanding of what it means to be human?

Jonathan Barlow and Philip Bunn discuss AI, Christian faithfulness, and the Church’s calling to cultivate wisdom and human community.

Listen:

How should Christians think about artificial intelligence? How can we receive its benefits with gratitude while considering the ways it shapes our habits, relationships, and understanding of what it m

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Birmingham, AL
35236

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+12052010045

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