Peter J. Leithart is President of the Theopolis Institute, Birmingham, Alabama, and an adjunct Senior Fellow at New St. Andrews College. He is author, most recently, of Gratitude: An Intellectual History (Baylor).

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From Leithart

John Frame distinguishes between facts as states of affairs and facts as statements concerning those states of affairs: “It would not be true to say that facts in the sense of states of affairs are identical with our interpretations of them, but facts in the sense of statements of fact are . . . . Continue Reading »

Sermon Outline

From Leithart

With lots of help from Gary Burge’s NIV Application Commentary . . . . INTRODUCTION The world around us seems to solid and permanent. We can hardly imagine what life would be like without well-stocked grocery shelves, autumn elections, air travel, electricity, running water, and all the . . . . Continue Reading »

Eucharistic meditation

From Leithart

1 John 2:5: Whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. As we saw in the sermon, John emphasizes the necessity of obedience in the Christian . . . . Continue Reading »

Exhortation

From Leithart

We Americans like to pretend we are self-made men and women. We don’t need nobody’s help, don’t tread on me, we’ll go it alone if only they’ll leave us alone. My life, my body, my person are mine and mine alone. We think that we can make our way through life as . . . . Continue Reading »

Wedding Sermon

From Leithart

Wives, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or . . . . Continue Reading »

Courtship and American culture

From Leithart

In a widely cited article, Leon Kass offers a partial, but still numbing, list of the social and cultural changes that have undermined traditional courtship: “the sexual revolution, made possible especially by effective female contraception; the ideology of feminism and the changing . . . . Continue Reading »

Knowing that we know

From Leithart

John’s statements about “knowing that we know” (1 John 2:3) have been the historical basis for the practical syllogism: 1. All who keep the commandments may be assured God’s favor. 2. I am keeping the commandments. 3. Therefore, I am assured of God’s favor. But the . . . . Continue Reading »

Trinitarian propitiation

From Leithart

Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. While “propitiation” has a concrete reference to the ark-cover and the firmament, it also has to do with pacifying wrath. But if Jesus is the eternal Son of the God whose name is Jealous, if He is Jealous in Himself, whose wrath is He . . . . Continue Reading »

Justice and Mercy

From Leithart

Suppose we said that Jesus received the Father’s approval of His work by grace, rather than by strict justice. What damage does that do to our soteriology? I’m not saying this is the case; I’m merely trying to pinpoint the motivation behind the Klinean position that insists on the . . . . Continue Reading »

Chivalry

From Leithart

CS Lewis pointed out that the critical thing about chivalry was “the double demand it makes on human nature. The knight is a man of blood and iron, a man familiar with the sight of smashed faces and the ragged stumps of lopped-off limbs; he is also a demure, almost a maidenlike, guest in . . . . Continue Reading »