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Recommended Reading List

Here is a 1689 Federalism recommended reading list. You should start at the top and work your way through the list.

  1. The Divine Covenants, A. W. Pink
  2. An Essay on the Kingdom of Christ, Abraham Booth (note that one reprint adds an essay by a later author against the Covenant of Works – that is not by Booth and not recommended)
  3. The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant, and His Kingdom, Samuel Renihan
  4. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapters 10-11, John Calvin (representative of the Westminster view)
  5. The Distinctiveness of 17th Century Particular Baptist Covenant Theology, Pascal Denault
  6. From Shadow to Substance: The Federal Theology of English Particular Baptists (1642-1702) Samuel Renihan
  7. The Fatal Flaw of the Theology Behind Infant Baptism, Jeffery Johnson
  8. Covenant Theology: From Adam to Christ, Nehemiah Coxe & John Owen
  9. Recovering a Covenantal Heritage, various
  10. Promise, Law, Faith – A Review Article (JIRBS 20), Brandon Adams

Pink provides a very helpful beginning to end overview of Scripture’s teaching on the various covenants. He mostly avoids polemics. Booth’s relatively short essay really clarifies the difference between the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Christ. Barcellos provides a very helpful explanation of the Covenant of Works, a necessary foundation for understanding 1689 Federalism. Calvin provides a short, but foundational explanation of the Westminster position. Denault’s survey helps introduce precise distinctions and contrasts it with Westminster’s view. Renihan elaborates upon Denault, providing a chronology of the development of 1689 Federalism and, importantly, placing it within the context of two different streams of reformed covenant theology in the 16th and 17th centuries. Johnson then pinpoints the root error of this position and provides a helpful discussion of various attempts to deal with it. Coxe and Owen provide a mature, detailed exegetical defense of 1689 Federalism. Recovering a Covenantal Heritage includes essays from a variety of authors touching on numerous related subjects. Finally, the JIRBS article offers an exegesis of Galatians 3-4 and also addresses a few outstanding systematic issues.

Once through that list, you can move on to other books and Additional Resources.