It’s been six years since Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum’s Kingdom Through Covenant first came out. In the interim, an abridged version was released (God’s Kingdom Through God’s Covenants), and now there’s an updated second edition of the original.
That might seem rather quick, but I’m not particularly surprised. When the original came out, I started an extended review of it, posting quotes along the way. You should go back and read that link for background and context on the authors and the book.
Several months later, I posted a long-form review, and based on some of my criticisms, Peter Gentry actually e-mailed me. Going back into the review, it’s mostly related to the ritual in Genesis 15, something I did my exegetical work on in Hebrew class. This was in turn based on work my professor had done and presented on at various theological meetings.
Anyway, I corresponded with Gentry a bit, and e-mailed him some of the PDF’s I had relied on in my work. Several months later, after he had time to study the documents, he replied back to me, and I made some adjustments to my review. You can read the e-mail from him and my comments here.
With that narrative in mind, and the thorough work of Gentry in particular taking note of how reviews came in, I’m not surprised there is a slightly updated version of the book already out. There are individual notes from each author in the new preface explaining the major details of the changes. I noticed in my perusal that one of the PDF’s I sent along made it into the footnotes, and there is a better defense of the position on Genesis 15 in the sections I pushed back on.
Books like this deserve a wider reading, although it is heavier lifting than most people are willing to do. But, my first read through was a rewarding experience and helped me think about how we go about fitting together all the threads of Scripture into a coherent storyline. Whether you ultimately agree with the authors, it is worth wrestling with their thorough exegetical and theological approach to the covenants in Scripture.
Speaking of Scripture, I was also stoked to see John Feinberg’s latest entry in the Foundation of Evangelical Theology series. He is the general editor of the series, and also wrote the volume of doctrine of God, No One Like Him (which I still need to read). Now, he gives us Light in a Dark Place on the doctrine of Scripture. With volumes on Christology, ecclesiology, soteriology, pneumatology, and theological method, the series is coming right along.
In this most recent volume, Feinberg situates Scripture into a broader theology of revelation, using light as a controlling metaphor. In this context, the first section of the book deals with the subject of Scripture’s inspiration. He uses light unveiled and light written as ways of expounding this.
If you wanted 200+ pages on inerrancy, the second section of the book is for you. Here, the concern is for light that is true. In the third section, the discussion moves to light that is with the boundaries of canonicity. The final section then deals with the uses and usefulness of Scripture: light to be embraced, understood, sufficient, and effective.
On the whole then, Feinberg’s work is an excellent entry in this series. He covers all the bases of a good, evangelical doctrine of Scripture. I’m a big fan of this series as a whole and look forward to more volumes coming out in the coming years. I’m also grateful to Crossway for sending me both of these books to peruse.