The post-apostolic church
Covenant concepts in early Christian theology apparently centred on the transferrence of the Davidic covenant to the Messianic figure—i.e., Christ. The fundamental theological problem of the early church was to validate the authority of Christ against both paganism and Judaism and to maintain the authority of the new religious community. After the great theologian St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430), little attention was given to covenants until the Reformation in the 16th century. Though Martin Luther (1483–1546) referred to and discussed the biblical covenants, it was never of particular importance to his theology. It is rather in Reformed theology, particularly that of John Calvin (1509–64) and the later Puritans of the 17th century, that its further elaboration took place. One aspect of the use of covenant may be cited in the famed Mayflower Compact of November 11, 1620 (drawn up by the Pilgrims, Separatists from the Church of England) by which a “civil body politic” was formed that would in turn enact laws and offices for the general good.
The theological elaboration of covenant in Puritan and Separatist theology centred on the themes of election, grace, and Baptism. It is curiously ironic that covenant enactment, such as the Mayflower Compact, became historically operative but remained essentially secular, while the religious covenant became predominantly a theological concept associated particularly with Baptism—the ritual means by which a person became a participant in the covenant of grace. The essential elements in the biblical covenant—i.e., that of free, voluntary acceptance of ethical obligation on the basis of and as response to past experience—has virtually always given way to covenant as fixed religious dogma that legitimizes the social structure. Covenant historically has been a means by which new communities are formed, particularly in times of rapid change, social dislocation, or political breakdown. Covenants have rarely been the actual instruments by which societies actually functioned for long, but they are extremely frequent as ideological foundations for sociopolitical legitimacy.