The Theopolis Podcast

Theopolis Institute
  • 4.9 (317)
  • Religion & Spirituality
  • Updated Biweekly

Theopolis Institute teaches men and women to lead cultural renewal by renewing the church.

  1. 5d ago

    Episode 891: The Thoughtful Craftsman - Restoring the Dignity of the Trades, with Jonathan Sedlak

    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 educators to stop treating the trades as a lesser path. Instead, Christian communities should train young people in practical skills, connect them with skilled mentors, honor tradesmen as essential servants of the city, and build networks that pass craftsmanship from one generation to the next. The 2026 Theopolitan Ministry Conference on the Theopolis App! https://app.theopolisinstitute.com/tabs/home/albums/71604?collectionId=1656 Give to our work and become a partner! theopolisinstitute.com/give/ Get the Theopolis App! app.theopolisinstitute.com/menu Use Code "theopolitan" to get your first month free! ______________________ Sign up for In Medias Res mailchi.mp/0b01d726f2fe/inmediasres ________ Theopolis on Youtube www.youtube.com/c/Theopolisinstitute Theopolis Blog: theopolisinstitute.com/theopolis-blog/ Website: theopolisinstitute.com Twitter: @_theopolis

    Episode 891: The Thoughtful Craftsman - Restoring the Dignity of the Trades, with Jonathan Sedlak

  2. Jul 22

    Episode 890: Artificial Intelligence in the City of God, with Jonathan Barlow

    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 assumption that humans and machines belong on the same scale, Barlow grounds the unique dignity of humanity in the image of God and, ultimately, in Christ—the true image of the invisible God and the fulfillment of the human vocation. He argues that Christians can therefore approach AI without anxiety: neither worshiping the work of our hands nor fearing it as a rival, but receiving it as a potentially powerful tool in humanity’s priestly task of building the city of God. Barlow will develop these themes further in his upcoming intensive course, Artificial Intelligence and Christian Theology, September 10–12 in Birmingham. Register for Barlow's Course, here: https://theopolisinstitute.com/courses/artificial-intelligence-and-christian-theology/ Give to our work and become a partner! theopolisinstitute.com/give/ Get the Theopolis App! app.theopolisinstitute.com/menu Use Code "theopolitan" to get your first month free! ______________________ Sign up for In Medias Res mailchi.mp/0b01d726f2fe/inmediasres ________ Theopolis on Youtube www.youtube.com/c/Theopolisinstitute Theopolis Blog: theopolisinstitute.com/theopolis-blog/ Website: theopolisinstitute.com Twitter: @_theopolis

    Episode 890: Artificial Intelligence in the City of God, with Jonathan Barlow

  3. Jul 15

    Episode 889: Ornament Between Work and Rest, by Dr. John Ahern

    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 Scripture, Augustine, Hugh of Saint Victor, John Ruskin, and the history of architecture and craftsmanship, Ahern shows how ornament unites beauty and usefulness, gives dignity to labor, and reflects the fruitfulness of God’s creation. Against modern minimalism, planned obsolescence, and instrumentalized work, “Ornament Between Work and Rest” calls for the recovery of a world in which our tools, homes, buildings, and common life once again bear the marks of gratitude, abundance, and joyful submission. Give to our work and become a partner! theopolisinstitute.com/give/ Get the Theopolis App! app.theopolisinstitute.com/menu Use Code "theopolitan" to get your first month free! ______________________ Sign up for In Medias Res mailchi.mp/0b01d726f2fe/inmediasres ________ Theopolis on Youtube www.youtube.com/c/Theopolisinstitute Theopolis Blog: theopolisinstitute.com/theopolis-blog/ Website: theopolisinstitute.com Twitter: @_theopolis

    Episode 889: Ornament Between Work and Rest, by Dr. John Ahern

  4. Jul 8

    Episode 888: The Gift of Land and Mission (Judges 1)

    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 possession of it. Along the way they discuss Judah’s alliance with Simeon, the defeat and mutilation of Adoni-Bezek, Jerusalem’s contested conquest, Caleb and Achsah’s request for springs of water, and the creational and bridal imagery embedded in Israel’s inheritance. Give to our work and become a partner! theopolisinstitute.com/give/ Get the new Theopolis App! app.theopolisinstitute.com/menu Use Code "theopolitan" to get your first month free! ______________________ Sign up for In Medias Res mailchi.mp/0b01d726f2fe/inmediasres ________ Theopolis on Youtube www.youtube.com/c/Theopolisinstitute Theopolis Blog: theopolisinstitute.com/theopolis-blog/ Website: theopolisinstitute.com Twitter: @_theopolis

    Episode 888: The Gift of Land and Mission (Judges 1)

  5. Jul 1

    Episode 887: Judges - A Comedy of Horrors

    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 design, its unusual heroes and weapons, its recurring images of mutilation and deliverance, and the long Christian tradition of reading figures like Samson as types of Christ. Along the way, the discussion moves through Jonathan Edwards on Samson, E.T.A. Davidson’s work on the book’s visual “tableaux,” the role of women like Deborah and Jael, the political and tribal tensions of Israel, and the repeated refrain that “there was no king in Israel.” The episode closes by considering how Judges exposes Israel’s liturgical disorder and points beyond human kingship to the reign of Yahweh. Give to our work and become a partner! theopolisinstitute.com/give/ Get the new Theopolis App! app.theopolisinstitute.com/menu Use Code "theopolitan" to get your first month free! ______________________ Sign up for In Medias Res mailchi.mp/0b01d726f2fe/inmediasres ________ Theopolis on Youtube www.youtube.com/c/Theopolisinstitute Theopolis Blog: theopolisinstitute.com/theopolis-blog/ Website: theopolisinstitute.com Twitter: @_theopolis

    Episode 887: Judges - A Comedy of Horrors

  6. Jun 24

    Episode 886: How Music Orders Our Affections, with John Ahern

    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 understanding music’s power over the soul. Along the way, Ahern shows why debates about worship music run emotionally hot: music is not neutral background, but a force that orders—or disorders—our affections, desires, and imagination. _____ John Ahern is the director of the Te Deum Music Fellows Program at Theopolis. Learn more and apply, here: https://theopolisinstitute.com/te-deum-music-fellows-program/ _____ Give to our work and become a partner! theopolisinstitute.com/give/ Get the new Theopolis App! app.theopolisinstitute.com/menu Use Code "theopolitan" to get your first month free! ______________________ Sign up for In Medias Res mailchi.mp/0b01d726f2fe/inmediasres ________ Theopolis on Youtube www.youtube.com/c/Theopolisinstitute Theopolis Blog: theopolisinstitute.com/theopolis-blog/ Website: theopolisinstitute.com Twitter: @_theopolis

    Episode 886: How Music Orders Our Affections, with John Ahern

  7. Jun 17

    Episode 885: The Church as the New Humanity (Q&A Episode)

    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. The conversation also explores Theopolitan instincts on polity—holding together local rule, presbyterial order, and episcopal responsibility—before turning to the church as the new humanity in Christ, a chosen people drawn from every tribe, tongue, and nation. GIVE TO THEOPOLIS! theopolisinstitute.com/give/ Get the Theopolis App! app.theopolisinstitute.com/menu Use Code "theopolitan" to get your first month free! Sign up for In Medias Res mailchi.mp/0b01d726f2fe/inmediasres

    Episode 885: The Church as the New Humanity (Q&A Episode)

  8. Jun 12

    Episode 884: Star Signs - Part 1 (Revelation 12:1-5), with James Jordan

    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 Revelation is not abstract symbolism but a heavenly unveiling of history under God’s rule, culminating in the victory of Christ and the formation of His bride, the Church. GIVE TO THEOPOLIS! theopolisinstitute.com/give/ Get the Theopolis App! app.theopolisinstitute.com/menu Use Code "theopolitan" to get your first month free! Sign up for In Medias Res mailchi.mp/0b01d726f2fe/inmediasres

    Episode 884: Star Signs - Part 1 (Revelation 12:1-5), with James Jordan
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4.9
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About

Theopolis Institute teaches men and women to lead cultural renewal by renewing the church.

Information

  • Creator
    Theopolis Institute
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodes
    500
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    The Theopolis Podcast

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