Theodore Peter Letis (1951 – June 24, 2005) was an American theologian and church historian. He was an advocate of the

Textus Receptus The (Latin for 'received text') is the succession of printed Greek New Testament texts starting with Erasmus' ''Novum Instrumentum omne'' (1516) and including the editions of Robert Estienne, Stephanus, Theodore Beza, Beza, the House of Elzevir ...

(TR). Letis was

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

, and argued for "the superiority of the TR based on the authority of the institutional church," a different approach to that of

fundamentalists Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that are characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishin ...

in the

King James Only movement The King James Only movement (also known as King James Onlyism or KJV Onlyism) asserts that the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible is superior to all other English translations of the Bible. Adherents of the movement, mostly certain Conse ...

. Letis studied at

Evangel College Evangel University is a private Christian university and seminary in Springfield, Missouri, United States. It is affiliated with the Assemblies of God Christian denomination, which is also headquartered in Springfield. The campus sits on that ...

Westminster Theological Seminary Westminster Theological Seminary (WTS) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian theology, theological seminary in the Reformed theology, Reformed theological tradition in Glenside, Pennsylvania. It was founded by members of the faculty of Prince ...

, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary,

Concordia Theological Seminary Concordia Theological Seminary is a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Lutheran seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It offers professional, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees affiliated with training clergy and deaconesses for the Lutheran Churc ...

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

, and the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. He directed the Institute for Renaissance and Reformation Biblical Studies and wrote ''The Ecclesiastical Text: Text Criticism, Biblical Authority and the Popular Mind'' and ''Today's Christian & the Church's Bible: A Time to Return to the Authorized Version''. Letis was the "first scholar to set out in detail" B. B. Warfield's "indebtedness to critical methodology for the defense of the faith." He argued that Warfield "broke with the prior

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

position on the emerging science of

textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may rang ...

by his endorsement of

conjectural emendation In mathematics, a conjecture is a conclusion or a proposition that is proffered on a tentative basis without proof. Some conjectures, such as the Riemann hypothesis or Fermat's conjecture (now a theorem, proven in 1995 by Andrew Wiles), have sh ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Letis, Theodore 1951 births 2005 deaths American biblical scholars Historians of Christianity American Lutheran theologians Evangel University alumni Westminster Theological Seminary alumni St. Charles Borromeo Seminary alumni Concordia Theological Seminary alumni Alumni of the University of Edinburgh