Peter Leithart's exposition of the first twelve chapters of the gospel of Matthew is an enlightening and encouraging work. As usual Dr. Leithart provides the best of contemporary scholarship, coupled with the insights of the great students of God's Word throughout history, resulting in a fresh perspective on the inspired text. This is a commentary that pastors will find extremely helpful in their studies, and laymen will enjoy reading as they seek to grow in their understanding of God's Word. Dr. Leithart has again accomplished something unique by writing both an insightful commentary as well as an inspiring devotional work.

Christians agree that worship must be biblical, but too many Christians focus on a handful of texts. To understand and do the Christian liturgy, we need to take account of the whole Bible.

In Theopolitan Liturgy, Peter J. Leithart examines the liturgical features of creation. The world is a temple. History is a dialogue with God. Life and society is sacrificial. Time follows a liturgical pattern.

Because creation is inherently liturgical, the liturgy isn't a retreat from the world. It's a transformation of the world. Church buildings use space as God designed it to be used, as space for worship. In the liturgy, we are trained to respond rightly to God's word, and learn the habit of living sacrifice. The church's calendar Christianizes time, imprinting the gospel on our days and years.

Leithart demonstrates that the liturgy isn't a retreat from engagement with the world. It is the church's primary engagement with the world. The liturgy is the initial Christianization of creation.

The introduction to the Theopolis Fundamentals Series was Leithart's book, Theopolitan Vision. Leithart's Theopolitan Liturgy is the first book in the series.

The early volumes of the Theopolis Fundamentals Series summarize the convictions of the Theopolis Institute in Birmingham, Alabama and James B. Jordan's Biblical Horizons about topics including biblical interpretation, liturgical theology and practice, and the church's cultural and political mission. The Fundamentals will be followed by a collection of Theopolis Explorations volumes that will examine Scripture, liturgy, and culture in more depth and detail.

In the second volume of his commentary on the gospel of Matthew, Peter Leithart presents a close study of Matthew 13 through 28, underscoring Jesus' formation of a counter-kingdom that also retells the story of Israel. Jesus is the true Israel who takes on the roles of various Old Testament leaders: Moses the law-giver, Joshua the conqueror, Solomon the philosopher-king, Elisha the wonder-working prophet leading a company of prophets, as well as Jeremiah and Ezekiel warning of the temple's imminent destruction. Jesus' interactions with the leaders of Israel recapitulate Yahweh's tortured interactions with Israel in the Old Testament. In spite of Israel's repeated rejections, Yahweh never gave up on His beloved. His love is stronger than death, and He returns as the world-emperor to send His new Israel to disciple the nations.

Peter Leithart shows in Theopolitan Reading that the whole Bible grows from seeds planted in the early chapters of Genesis. The events of Scripture take place in the three-story world created in Genesis 1. Adam is in the background of all the men of the Bible, and Eve in the background of all the women. The Scriptures are a story of Eden lost, regained, and glorified into a heavenly city.

All the themes of Genesis come to their climax in Jesus, the Last Adam who delivers His new Eve, the church, so that together they can transform the wild waste of the world into an image of the new Jerusalem.

Theopolitan Reading doesn't lay out detailed rules for reading. Rules are of limited use. To be good readers, we need mentors who model good reading. Leithart serves as a mentor and invites readers to imitate him as he imitates Christ Jesus.

The Theopolis Fundamentals Series introduces the Biblical Horizons / Theopolis outlook and agenda to a new generation. The early volumes of the series summarize our convictions about biblical interpretation, liturgical theology and practice, and the church's cultural and political mission. The Fundamentals will be followed by a collection of Theopolis Explorations volumes that will examine Scripture, liturgy, and culture in more depth and detail.

The heavenly city of God resurrects the cities of men.

On Earth as in Heaven calls the church to embrace her identity and mission as one shaped by biblical theology and liturgy. The world grows increasingly polarized and politicized, but the church's commission remains unchanged. Christians carry out Jesus's mission by being the church. To change the world, the church needs only to be what she is--the bride of Christ--and to do what she does--teach, preach, sing, pray, break bread. Cultural and political mission and individual witness and service all spring from the church's liturgical life. As the church proclaims God's word and practices vibrant liturgy, she is God's heavenly city, shining as a light to the world.

ible-reading is more of an art than a science. The Bible is a story, not a lexicon of systematic theological definitions. With this in mind, the Through New Eyes Bible Commentary Series builds on the foundational Biblical-theology work of James B. Jordan and other like-minded scholars in bringing you a set of commentaries that will help you read, teach and preach through the Bible while picking up on the rich symphonic themes and the literary symbolism of the Scriptures. Because they are written for thoughtful Christians without being overly academic, these commentaries will serve as valuable resources for family worship, Sunday school or Bible studies.

Activist Christians tend to assume that, if the church is to be politically influential, her first task is to become more political. National political issues have, as a result, displaced theological and ecclesiastical concerns in the agenda and priorities of many churches. As a result, churches, especially those dominated by an activist model of the kingdom, fail to address the world in a distinctively Christian manner-that is, as the church.

In his book, The Kingdom and the Power, Peter J. Leithart shows from Scripture that Christians must neither retreat from the world or idolize power and mammon to influence the world but engage the world-as the church. For wherever Christ is present, there is the kingdom. That means the kingdom of God is in the church, the body of Christ.

In Theopolitan Mission, Peter J. Leithart explores the meaning of human making and the model of two biblical makers, Noah and Jesus, to identify the church's mission as the calling of man: to build God's temple in the world, then to remodel the world after the pattern of the sanctuary.

Jesus is the Carpenter of Nazareth, the new and greater Noah, who builds a living ark from the crooked timber of humanity. Through us, the remade humanity, Jesus fulfills His second task, remaking the creation. Like the first godly maker in Scripture, Jesus builds an ark to preserve the treasure of the old world, which are materials for a new world.

Theopolitan Mission concludes its meditation on making, mis-making, and right-making by attending to the book of Acts, the great missionary narrative of Scripture.

Theopolitan Mission is a companion to Leithart's Theopolitan Liturgy, part of a meditation on the relationship between liturgy and culture.

The Theopolis Fundamentals Series introduces the Biblical Horizons / Theopolis outlook and agenda to a new generation. The early volumes of the series summarize our convictions about biblical interpretation, liturgical theology and practice, and the church's cultural and political mission. The Fundamentals will be followed by a collection of Theopolis Explorations volumes that will examine Scripture, liturgy, and culture in more depth and detail.

Peter Leithart weighs what we've been taught about Constantine and claims that in focusing on these historical mirages we have failed to notice the true significance of Constantine and Rome baptized. He reveals how beneath the surface of this contested story there lies a deeper narrative--a tectonic shift in the political theology of an empire--with far-reaching implications.

Seeking to train readers to hear all that is being said within a written text, Peter Leithart advocates a hermeneutics of the letter that is not rigidly literalist and looks to learn to read--not just the Bible, but everything--from Jesus and Paul. Thus Deep Exegesis explores the nature of reading itself--taking clues from Jesus and Paul on the meaning of meaning, the functions of language, and proper modes of interpretation. By looking (and listening) closely, and by including passages from the Bible and other literary sources, Leithart aims to do for the text what Jesus did for the blind man in John 9: to make new by opening eyes. The book is a powerful invitation to enter the depths of a text.

The best stories subtly weave themes and characters and symbols into a stunning final tapestry. In this Canon Press bestseller, Leithart shows that the Bible is the best story.

For many Christians, sadly, the Old Testament is merely a jumble of moralistic stories and weird rituals, genealogies, and historical chronicles. What is the point of it all, and what does it have to do with Jesus?

In this short and readable book, Leithart gives a sweeping overview of the Bible, its stories, and the patterns and symbols that recur throughout it, highlighting the ways many of the little stories look forward to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Himself.

Although the book is lots of fun, the lessons it teaches are far from trivial. The Gospels say again and again Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Christians need to learn to read the Old Testament the way Jesus and the Apostles read it, so that we can delight in the word of God and encounter Him in its stories. This book can be read easily by high school students and includes review questions for anyone who wants to use it in their curriculum. However, it will also give anyone familiar with Scripture much to think about. And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Lk 24:27).

Doubling as both scholar and guide, Leithart dives deep into the fascinating web woven by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Four covers everything from running themes within each book to more technical issues like the synoptic problem. Written for high school students and beyond, this book includes review and thought questions throughout each chapter, as well as a bibliography and scripture index.

This book is a Christian introduction to Shakespeare for high school students and includes analysis, questions, and reviw for six of Shakespeare's most meaningful (and enjoyable) plays.

Shakespeare was, as Caesar says of Cassius, 'a great observer, ' able to see and depict patterns of events and character. He understood how politics is shaped by the clash of men with various colorings of self-interest and idealism, how violence breeds violence, how fragile human beings create masks and disguises for protection, how schemers do the same for advancement, how love can grow out of hate and hate out of love.

Dare anyone say that these insights are irrelevant to living in the real world? For many in an older generation, the Bible and the Collected Shakespeare were the two indispensable books, and thus their sense of life and history was shaped by the best and best-told stories. And they were the wiser for it.

This book by theologian Peter Leithart is written for high school students and includes analyses of six of Shakespeare's plays ( Henry V, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, and Much Ado About Nothing ), as well as numerous review and discussion questions for anyone who wishes to incorporate them into their high school curriculum.

In this wide-ranging study bursting with insights, Peter Leithart explores how and why Jesus' death and resurrection address the deepest realities of this world. This biblical and theological examination of atonement and justification challenges conventional perceptions and probes the depths of the death that changes everything.

Theologians ignore the work of German philosopher and sociologist Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888-1973), despite his major contributions to Christian thought. In this volume, Peter J. Leithart shows why that neglect is a mistake, considering Rosenstock-Huessy's thoughts on the soul, time, the cross, and more.