The Theopolis Podcast

Peter Leithart and James Bejon, joined by Brian Moats, continue their discussion of Judges 5, exploring Deborah’s summons to battle and the tribes’ differing responses. They examine the song’s distinctive repetitions, Barak’s taking captivity captive, and the courage of Zebulun and Naphtali, drawing connections with Psalm 68, Ephesians 4, and Revelation. Along the way, they consider echoes of Jaco...

Peter Leithart, Jeff Meyers, and James Bejon continue their discussion of Judges 5, exploring how Deborah arises as a mother in Israel to revive a divided and dispirited people. They consider the surprising role of Gentiles in Israel’s deliverance, drawing connections between Jael, Ruth, and Moses’ Midianite family. Along the way, they examine how deserted highways disrupt worship, commerce, and c...

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. They consider the power of singing to preserve memory, gather God’s people, and proclaim His righteous acts to the kings of the earth, drawing connections with Miriam, Hannah, and Mary. Along the way, th...

Peter Leithart, Jeff Myers, James Bejon, and Alastair Roberts conclude their discussion of Judges 4, exploring Jael’s welcome of Sisera and her decisive victory with a tent peg and hammer. They trace connections with Rahab, Samson and Delilah, and the Levite’s concubine, considering hospitality, deception, and loyalty to God’s people. Along the way, they examine Jael and Deborah as figures of fait...

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 means to be human? Jonathan Barlow of Mississippi State University’s Data Science Program and Philip Bunn of Covenant College join Theopolis for a public conversation on AI, technology, and Christian f...

Peter Leithart, Jeff Myers, James Bejon, and Alastair Roberts continue their discussion of Judges 4, following Deborah and Barak from the summons to battle through Sisera’s defeat at the Kishon. They explore the story’s echoes of the Exodus, the significance of Barak’s name, and the return of Zebulun and Naphtali to the fight after their earlier failures in Judges. Along the way they consider Hebe...

Peter Leithart, James Bejon, Jeff Meyers, and Alastair Roberts begin their discussion of Judges 4 by considering Deborah’s judgeship and her commissioning of Barak. They challenge the common assumption that Deborah’s leadership should be understood merely as a consequence of male failure, instead presenting Deborah and Jael as heroic women who employ distinctively feminine weapons in Israel’s holy...

Peter Leithart, James Bejon, and Alastair Roberts continue their discussion of Judges 3 by finishing the story of Ehud and turning to the brief account of Shamgar. They explore the aftermath of Eglon’s death, Ehud’s escape, the trapping and slaughter of the Moabites at the Jordan, and the Exodus and conquest patterns running through the episode. Along the way they discuss Eglon’s fall as a parody...

Peter Leithart, James Bejon, Alastair Roberts, and Jeff Meyers continue their discussion of Judges 3 by examining Ehud’s deliverance of Israel from Eglon, king of Moab. They explore the grotesque birth imagery running through Judges, the Exodus and conquest patterns embedded in Ehud’s story, the significance of Ehud’s left-handedness, and the priestly and sacrificial dimensions of Eglon’s death. A...

Jeff Meyers, James Bejon, and Alastair Roberts move into Judges 3, where the nations remaining in the land become instruments for testing Israel and the book introduces Othniel, its first major judge. They discuss what it means for Israel to “learn war,” why warfare in Judges is inseparable from covenant faithfulness and dependence upon Yahweh, and how divine testing makes God’s knowledge of His p...

Jeff Meyers, James Bejon, and Alastair Roberts continue through Judges 2, where the death of Joshua gives way to the recurring pattern of Israel’s apostasy, oppression, and deliverance that will structure the rest of the book. They discuss the generation that arose without knowing Yahweh or His works, the importance of passing covenant memory from one generation to the next, and why the cycles of...

Peter Leithart, James Bejon, Alastair Roberts, and Jeff Meyers finish Judges 1 and move into the opening of Judges 2, where Israel’s incomplete conquest gives way to the angel of the Lord’s covenant lawsuit at Bochim. They explore the increasing failure of the northern tribes to drive out the Canaanites, the contrast between Israel dwelling among the Canaanites and the Canaanites dwelling among Is...

Peter Leithart, James Bejon, Alastair Roberts, and Jeff Meyers continue their discussion of Judges 1 by examining Israel’s partial conquest of the land and the tribal fractures already beginning to emerge. They explore how differing levels of faithfulness, compromise with the Canaanites, and the geography of the land anticipate the later division of Israel, as well as the role of common worship in...

Jon Sedlak calls Christians to recover the dignity of the skilled trades and to recognize craftsmanship as a vital form of Christian vocation. Drawing on his experience as a master electrician, he argues that the trades cultivate embodied wisdom, genuine competence, humility, endurance, excellence, and face-to-face service within local communities. Sedlak challenges churches, parents, and educator...

In this episode, we feature Jonathan Barlow’s lecture from the 2026 Theopolitan Ministry Conference. Barlow examines several common anxieties surrounding artificial intelligence: the fear that technology will reduce human beings to measurable outputs, the temptation to treat AI as an oracle, and the concern that intelligent machines will become rivals to human labor and creativity. Against the ass...

In this lecture from the 2026 Theopolitan Ministry Conference, Dr. John Ahern argues that ornament is not an unnecessary addition to useful things, but the natural overflow of human love, gratitude, and delight. He explores ornamentation as the meeting place of work and rest: the patient, repetitive labor of the six days gathered up and enjoyed in the contemplation of the seventh. Drawing from Scr...

Peter Leithart, James Bejon, and Alastair Roberts continue their discussion of Judges by turning to chapter 1 and the unfinished conquest of the land. They explore how the opening chapters frame the whole book, including Israel’s tribal failures, the recurring cycle of idolatry and deliverance, the chronology of Joshua’s death, and the distinction between conquering the land and truly taking posse...

Judges is a book of riddles, grotesque comedy, tribal fracture, liturgical chaos, and unexpected deliverance. Peter Leithart, Jeff Meyers, Alastair Roberts, and James Bejon open a new Theopolis series on the book of Judges, considering why this strange and violent book rewards close attention. The conversation explores the legacy of James Jordan’s work on Judges, the book’s intricate literary desi...

In this re-released lecture, Dr. John Ahern explores why music moves us so deeply, arguing that music works not only through text and melody but through deeper structures—harmony, rhythm, form, and repetition—that shape our emotions often before we consciously notice them. He traces the rise of “art music” as a kind of substitute liturgy and contrasts ancient, churchly, and modern ways of understa...

In this Q&A episode, Peter Leithart, Jeff Meyers, and James Bejon take up listener questions on John Webster, the structure of 1 Corinthians, church polity, and the modern debate over race and marriage. They commend Webster as a rigorous and uplifting Reformed theologian, then trace the unifying threads of 1 Corinthians through Paul’s concerns for love, unity, the body, and rightly ordered freedom...

James B. Jordan continues his Revelation series with a study of Revelation 12:1–5, showing how the “great signs” in heaven reveal the drama of the old creation coming to its end. He explains the woman clothed with the sun, the dragon, and the child through the imagery of Israel, the constellations, the temple, and the long biblical story from Eve to Christ. Along the way, Jordan argues that Revela...

In this Q&A episode, Peter Leithart is joined by Jeff Meyers, Alastair Roberts, and James Bejon to answer listener questions on Trinitarian theology, church unity, family worship, evangelism, and liturgy. They discuss the monarchy of the Father, the biblical pattern of calling the Father “God” and Jesus “Lord,” and the mystery of the Trinity’s unity. They also consider what a future united church...

Malachi closes with a vision of the coming day: burning like a furnace for the wicked, but rising with healing for those who fear the Lord’s name. Peter Leithart, Alastair Roberts, and James Bejon discuss the final chapter of Malachi, tracing its imagery of fire, harvest, threshing floor, calves released from the stall, and the sun of righteousness with healing in its wings. Along the way the conv...

James Jordan continues his walk through the Book of Revelation. To listen to this ENTIRE series right now (with class notes!), download the Theopolis App! Use the code "theopolitan" to get your first month for FREE. app.theopolisinstitute.com/menu

Malachi’s final disputation exposes Israel’s despairing complaint: “It is vain to serve God.” Peter Leithart, Jeff Meyers, Alastair Roberts, and James Bejon explore the loss of confidence that comes when the wicked seem to prosper and the righteous appear unrewarded. Along the way the conversation moves through Psalm 73, Job, the biblical shape of the problem of evil, the difference between short-...