Righteous By Design: Covenantal Merit and Adam's Original Integrity

by Harrison Perkins

Genres: Theology

384 pages, Paperback

Published November 12, 2024

Reviews

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books that started out as an addendum to another book and ended up as its own work. Often it seems the material should have stayed in its original home. That's probably the case here. I don't have any objection to the theology (mostly historical, a tad bit of systematic--not the ratio you'd expect from the title, and certainly not from the name of the series), but I can't believe there are more than a few dozen people in the world today who will read this book. I'm not sure I'm glad I did.

The topic has to do about whether Adam was created with the ability to fulfill the covenant of life, or whether he needed help from God to do so. The latter is the Roman few (esp. Thomas, with the view of "supernatural grace" being necessary). The former is a standard Reformed view, even though it's not discussed all that much. I won't get into all the particulars, except to say that Perkins is probably right, though perhaps not for the exact reasons he gives.

Anyhow, very much "inside baseball" here, and Perkins is no George Will.

[K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best and worst of academic theological writing. Too often, historical theology provides only explanations and not arguments for why theologians believed what they did. Read the second half for a biblical-theological argument which is fascinating in its own right.