The Immortal Commonwealth: Covenant, Community, and Political Resistance in Early Reformed Thought by David P. Henreckson (review)

David Henreckson begins this book by noting a persistent scholarly gap between historians and theologians concerning the early modern concept of covenant. Henreckson argues that his book will consider both political and theological dimensions of covenant to provide a richer understanding of the early modern origins of covenant and its related concept, resistance. In so doing, Henreckson takes on the task of challenging most theological, political, and historical accounts of this time while providing a better reading of his own. Henreckson turns to a broad assortment of often-overlooked Reformed thinkers, focusing primarily on those active between 1574 and 1614. These include, among many others, Theodore Beza, Giorlamo Zanchi, Philippe de Mornay, and Johannes Althusius.

Henreckson's argument begins by challenging a commonly held view that the Reformed were committed to divine voluntarism. He shows instead the intellectualist doctrine of God funding the Reformed claim that God draws into covenant with humanity. Henreckson then coordinates Reformed accounts of the relationship between laws, commands, and obedience, and how these are determined by the antecedent covenantal relationship human beings share with God. Turning his attention to the political implications of these commitments, Henreckson focuses on Reformed accounts of political resistance following the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. He analyzes the biblical, historical, legal, and theological arguments Reformed thinkers made, showing how they drew on their account of covenant and law to argue for resistance against tyranny. Henreckson then applies his careful analysis on Vindicae Contra Tyrannos, particularly its doctrine of the double covenant: the view that there is a covenant between God and the people on the one hand, and God, the king, and the people, on the other. Henreckson then turns his attention to rival accounts of this time period that advocated for paternalistic and absolutist conceptions of divine and political rule. In so doing, Henreckson provides a relief by which readers can see how theological, moral, legal, and political commitments are intertwined for both Reformed resistance theorists and their critics.

The hero of Henreckson's book is Johannes Althusius. Henreckson devotes his penultimate chapter to a close reading of Althusius's Politica. For Henreckson, Althusius, drawing upon earlier Reformed accounts, introduces an innovation to early modern thought by arguing for a form of popular political agency in which the consociated people are the source of and possess sovereign ius over the realm. Earthly leaders serve as administrative heads of this covenanted people, bound by a relationship of mutual accountability to one another and to God. Violations of the common good therefore implicate both the ruler and the consociated people, as the responsibility for ensuring right order in the commonwealth cuts in both directions.

Henreckson's final chapter works up the Reformed account of virtues that are required to ensure resistance to tyranny is rightly and proportionately ordered to the common good. He then applies some of the normative lessons of his historical analysis for today. This chapter works as a conclusion, but remains the most underdeveloped. Readers will find themselves wanting Henreckson to flesh out his constructive proposal in greater detail, perhaps in a future work.

Henreckson supports his arguments with close reading of primary texts and a keen ability to rationally reconstruct and coordinate the various commitments underlying these texts. This book stands out for its massive breadth and depth of knowledge. His criticisms of contemporary scholarship are fair and adequately supplied with texts and arguments. It may be too advanced for beginners, but will be an invaluable reference for everyone else. This book should therefore be required reading for any theologian, historian, ethicist, or political theorist who works on early modern European thought.