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9.28.2017

Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World”, by Dr. Thomas R. Schreiner (book review)

“Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World” is a tidy book written by Dr. Thomas R. Schreiner, James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation and Professor of Biblical Theology (1997); Associate Dean of the School of Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Dr. Schreiner is a phenomenal Bible scholar who has contributed greatly to various theological studies.  His teaching and writing is biblically solid and trustworthy.

The purpose of the book is to uncover the six biblical covenants as they unfold through scripture’s timeline.  Those six covenants are: (1) The Covenant of Creation, (2) The Covenant with Noah, (3) The Covenant with Abraham, (4) The Covenant with Israel, (5) The Covenant with David, and finally, (6) The New Covenant.

Each of the six covenants and several of their dynamics were handled briefly and simply.  When I say simply, I do not necessarily mean “easy”.  While explained well, I still needed to read slowly and carefully in order to comprehend what Dr. Schreiner was saying.  Thankfully, Dr. Schreiner sums up his chapters very succinctly in each chapter’s conclusion.  While the chapters provide much greater detail, the concluding summaries serve well to provide “fly-by” overviews for quicker reference.

Rating: While I found the book rather dry, I did learn greatly from it.  It just didn’t capture my attention as a fantastic book that I could recommend as a must-read.  I didn’t have that craving to continue reading it as though it was a page-turner.  For that, I give this book just 4 stars.


Disclaimer: I received the digital version of this book free of charge from Crossway in exchange for my unbiased review of it.  All opinions are mine.

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