A Biblical Theology of Covenants - Covenant and God's Purpose for the World by Thomas Schreiner Book Review

Have you heard much teaching on the theme of covenant in Scripture? If you have, who taught you?

Covenant is a “bible word” that is rarely used outside of the context of a certain kind of theology. As a result, covenant is the kind of thing that you either think a whole lot about, or not about at all. I think that Thomas Schreiner’s Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World, an entry in the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series which I really love, is ideal reading for the person in the second camp, the kind of person who never thinks about the idea of covenant. If you have not thought about covenant much, you will benefit tremendously from the survey that Schreiner gives to this very important biblical theme.

Starting from the very beginning in Genesis, Schreiner traces the idea of covenant as the bible progressively reveals it. Schreiner defines covenant as, “A chosen relationship in which two parties make binding promises to each other” (p.13). He spends a few pages expanding on that definition and giving examples of covenants in both the Scriptural and historical context that would be really helpful to the person who has not been exposed to much teaching on the theme of covenant. Schreiner identifies covenants that God makes with Adam (in the Covenant of Works), Noah, Abraham, Israel (at Sinai), David, and the New Covenant. He makes note of where there is continuity and discontinuity between the covenants that God makes with men. 

Another book which offers a more Reformed/Presbyterian perspective on the nature of covenants in Scripture is O. Palmer Robertson’s Christ of the Covenants. That book follows a very similar structure to Schreiner’s, where Robertson touches on each of the various covenants in Scripture in succession.

I’d recommend this book to the person who is interested in getting an introduction to covenant theology from a Baptist perspective!