The Zurich Origins of Reformed Covenant Theology

In The Zurich Origins of Reformed Covenant Theology the author draws a crystal clear map of the road that the biblical concept of the covenant took in theological reflection from Zwingli to Bullinger. A detour takes the reader from Zurich to Geneva. The main route leads to Heidelberg where a younger generation, Ursinus and Olevian, followed the lead of the Zurich fathers. Pierrick Hildebrand is a young scholar who takes Reformation studies a firm stride forwards, critically engaging with older studies and neutralizing anachronistic concepts. Bringing valuable unpublished sources to the table, the author enriches our understanding of the Reformed doctrine of the covenant. Both the academy and churches can profit from this offspring of Zurich scholarship.

Auteur
Pierrick Hildebrand is an Associate Researcher at the Swiss Reformation Studies Institute at the University of Zurich and a minister in the Reformed Church of Bern. His research interests lie with the history and theology of the Reformed tradition in the Reformation and early post-Reformation.

Texte du rabat

This book explores the origins and development of one of the most significant doctrines of Reformation theology. The innovative ways in which the Zurich reformer Huldrych Zwingli and his successor Heinrich Bullinger thought about the relationship between the Old and New Testaments left an indelible mark on the Reformed tradition in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Distinctively, Zwingli and Bullinger emphasized the continuity of both testaments and spoke of a single covenant between God and humanity. This would become one of the defining teachings of Reformed Christianity. This book follows the development of their "covenant theology" in the Reformation and argues for its adoption by John Calvin in Geneva and the German theologians of the post-Reformation era.

Résumé
This book offers a fresh interpretation of covenantal theology in the Reformation by demonstrating how the writings of the Zurich reformers Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) and his successor Heinrich Bullinger (1504-75) decisively shaped a foundation of the Reformed tradition. The book overturns previous research that has both emphasized Zurich's irreconcilability with later developments of Reformed covenant theology and downplayed the contribution of the Zurich theologians in favor of figures such as Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) and John Calvin (1509-64). It argues for the dependence of Calvin and other leading figures on Zurich and for continuity in the later Reformed tradition with its origins in the 1520s. Pierrick Hildebrand demonstrates that the concept of a prelapsarian covenant, generally used as an argument for discontinuity between Zurich and Heidelberg, was clearly present in Zwingli and Bullinger. Further, Bullinger's covenantal terminology, which integrates the concept of the covenant with union with Christ, was adopted by Calvin and later by the Heidelberg theologians. Rejecting the idea that Zurich and Geneva represented two different traditions, Hildebrand details significant continuities and agreement while paying attention to differences. To do this, he draws on printed texts but also makes extensive use of previously unexamined manuscript sources, such as commentaries and sermon notes, to provide a much fuller account of the origins of Reformed covenantal theology. Working across a range of literary genres and with careful attention to historical contexts, this book presents the evolution of a crucial part of Reformation thought in a new light.