The covenant of redemption (pactum salutis) the eternal intra-trinitarian covenant was a
common staple within Early Modern Reformed theology yet there are very few historical works
that examine this doctrine. J. V. Fesko's study The Covenant of Redemption: Origins
Development and Reception seeks to address this lacuna. In the contemporary period the
covenant of redemption has been derided as speculative mythological a declension from
trinitarianism or erroneously derived from one or two biblical proof-texts. Yet seldom have
critics carefully engaged the primary sources to examine the different formulations supporting
exegesis and ways in which the doctrine was employed. Far from speculation sub-trinitarian
or a cold business transaction proponents of the covenant of redemption constructed this
doctrine based upon a web of interconnected biblical texts and were very sensitive to
maintaining a robust doctrine of the trinity as they employed this doctrine as a bulwark
against the anti-trinitarian claims of Socinian theologians. Proponents of the doctrine also
saw this pre-temporal covenant as the embodiment of intra-trinitarian love that overflows unto
those chosen in Christ for their salvation and ultimate fellowship with the triune God. John V.
Fesko explores the historical origins of the doctrine and then surveys its development in the
seventeenth- through nineteenth-centuries examining key advocates of the doctrine including
David Dickson Herman Witsius Johannes Cocceius Francis Turretin Patrick Gillespie John
Gill Jonathan Edwards Charles Hodge and A. A. Hodge. He then examines the contemporary
reception of the doctrine in the twentieth century with a survey of the doctrine's critics
including Karl Barth Herman Hoeksema Klaas Schilder and John Murray. After exploring the
claims of the critics the study moves to examine the views of twentieth-century proponents
including Geerhardus Vos Herman Bavinck Abraham Kuyper Louis Berkhof and G. C. Berkouwer.
