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LYLE D. BIERMA, German Calvinism in the Confessional Age: The Covenant Theology of Caspar Olevianus, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Company, 1996. Pp. 201. $14.99 (paper).
This book is a revision of a 1980 Duke University doctoral dissertation and of two articles derived from it. Lyle Bierma, Professor of Theology at the Reformed Bible College in Grand Rapids, writes with authority about a key aspect of the theology of Caspar Olevianus (1536-1587), traditionally regarded as the co-author of the Heidelberg Catechism (1563). Earlier scholars have examined Olevianus' supposed authorship of the catechism as well as his part in the abortive reformation of Trier and in the creation of a Reformed polity and liturgy for the Palatinate, but Bierma is the first to make a full-scale study of the claim made by some that Olevianus was the originator of Reformed covenant theology
The first chapter sketches Olevianus' life and reviews the work of previous scholars, who often reached contradictory conclusions about his covenant theology. Chapter two surveys the views on the relationship between the testaments and on the sacraments of five continental Reformed forerunners of Olevianus: Zwingli, Bullinger, Calvin, Musculus, and Ursinus. They all agreed-against the rival covenant theology of the Anabaptists-on the essential unity of the two testaments and on infant baptism's biblical basis.
The book's heart is chapter three, which exposits Olevianus' complex and occasionally opaque thought about the covenant of grace. According to Bierma, Olevianus makes three key distinctions: 1) between the covenant's substance and...