“Federal Theology as Political Theology” By Pablo Ava

Reading the Bible by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (US-PD).

During the Protestant Reformation, the Herborn Academy was a Calvinist Reformed institution located in German territory, which was therefore Lutheran. It operated from 1584 until 1817. Herborn was the cradle of covenant theology, also known as federal theology. Due to its adherence to Calvinism, it was never officially recognized as a university. Johannes Althusius taught at Herborn for seventeen years and is widely regarded by scholars of federalism as the thinker who laid the groundwork for the modern concept of federalism.

Federal theology at Herborn thus became both an epistemological framework and a framework for biblical exegesis, in which the idea of covenant reflects the relationship between the Old Covenant (with the people of Israel) and the New Covenant (through the blood of Christ). This method of scriptural interpretation would have a significant influence on Althusius’s thought and the early federalist ideas found in his work. 

In 1531, Reformed orthodoxy turned to covenant theology to provide a redemptive historical expression for its exegetical (biblical) and dogmatic theology. As understood and practiced by the Reformed orthodox, there was no significant distinction between covenant theology and federal theology. Orthodox Lutheranism appears to have rejected federal theology, viewing it as a confusion between Law and Gospel. However, Reformed theology embraced covenant theology not to reject Luther’s legacy but to preserve the Protestant doctrine of salvation and to coherently relate justification and sanctification. Classical Reformed theology taught three covenants: the covenant of redemption (pactum salutis), the covenant of works (foedus operum), and the covenant of grace (foedus gratiae).

At the time, there were two main schools of constitutional thought: the University of Helmstedt (a Lutheran Protestant institution advocating absolutism) and the University of Herborn (a Calvinist Protestant institution favoring liberalism). The two most influential theorists associated with these jurisprudential schools were Henning Arnisaeus (Helmstedt) and Johannes Althusius (Herborn). The two schools divide constitutional controversy in Germany (1603–1615) defined not only the terms of the debate over territorial organization but also contributed to the development of a constitutional theory regarding the formation of the German Empire and, more broadly, of German public law.

In 1603, Althusius, then syndic of Emden, published the first edition of his work: Politica. Methodice Digesta, atque Exemplis Sacris et Profanis Illustrata (fully translated as: Politics Methodically Digested and Illustrated by Sacred and Secular Examples). The title alludes to his intention to compile political knowledge—hence the term “digest”—conceived methodically according to Ramist logic, and supported by examples from both Scripture and profane sources, particularly from Greece, Rome, and European countries such as Switzerland and the Netherlands. The work was expanded in 1610 and republished in 1614. According to Otto von Gierke, “It was Althusius who, with creative genius, brought together into a system and grounded in principle the federalist ideas that were fermenting” (244). Gierke’s  interpretation is not universally accepted, as Huegelin observes, while Otto von Gierke praised Althusius for systematizing and theorizing existing federal doctrines, Carl Friedrich—the editor of an incomplete Latin edition of Politica—characterized Althusius’s theory as “consocialism” rather than federalism. Patrick Riley even questioned whether Althusius’s theory qualifies as federalism at all. Riley argued that Althusius described and defended a “system of medieval constitutionalism.” However, Riley’s assessment is based on a narrow understanding of federalism, one modeled after the American federal system.

The second significant historical rediscovery of Althusius was made by Daniel Elazar in the 1960s in the United States. Elazar focused on the concept of federalism and the biblical origins of the federal covenant in Althusius’s work. For Elazar and those who followed his line of research, Althusius is the first theorist of the modern federalist model, whose roots can be traced to the Old Testament. According to Elazar, Althusius’s biblical thought is rooted in the concept of covenant: from God’s covenant with Abraham, which philosophers identify with the “natural law in Genesis,” to the covenant under the leadership of Ezra and Moses, who adopted the Torah as a constitutional and positive law source. The covenantal model of Hebrew civilization is part of the natural evolution of societies. Understood in this way, covenant becomes a central theme for most theologians of the Reformation. The idea of returning to early Christian communities also predominates—with small, independent congregations maintaining autonomy from broader religious authorities and cultivating a strong sense of community identity. This gave rise to Congregationalist movements, which played a major role in founding the American colonies. Many of these groups were forced into exile in the Netherlands due to persecution by the Anglican Church and English monarchs for their refusal to accept centralized authority, which they associated with Catholicism. Therefore, Althusius aligns with the theory that the Reformation helped revive the idea of covenant or social contract.

According to Elazar, the biblical design and its covenants turn Althusius’s work into a theological and federal order in several respects. The Scriptures narrate the course of natural history. The idea of covenant reflects the relationship between the Old Covenant (with the people of Israel) and the New Covenant (through the blood of Christ). The concept that becomes secularized is Beruf, translated as covenant, contract, or agreement—from God’s covenant with Abraham, which establishes what philosophers term “the natural law of Genesis,” to the covenant under Ezra and Moses, who adopt the Torah as constitutional source and positive law. The covenantal model of Hebrew civilization is part of the natural evolution of societies, beginning with an initial covenant followed by successive ones. Thus, this network of contracts among various political units originates in the divine-human covenant. The political organization of Israel, originally a federation of tribes bound by treaties, inspires political organization—a constitutional legal system derived from an initial covenant and reflected in the Torah as written positive law.This Old Testament idea was revived through the 16th-century Reformation in the German Reformed communities, including Calvin’s Geneva and the early American colonies, all of which represent a renewal of a new covenant. Geneva, in Calvin’s vision, was “the first covenanted community,” where all citizens swore allegiance to the Bible in a public ceremony. Similarly, the early American colonies, such as Plymouth, adopted this secular and contractual model of government, especially among Congregationalists and Separatists. The Mayflower Compact signed by the 100 male pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, formalized this idea of a covenanted community.Thus, for Elazar, Althusius was the figure who best encapsulated covenantal ideas during the Protestant Reformation, updating the biblical vision and contributing to what became known as the “Federal or Covenant Theology.”

With Charles McCoy and J. Wayne Baker, we may summarize the core elements of Federal Theology. For federalists, the created order is based on the Covenant with God; thus, divine commandments permeate the nature of things. Federalism includes a lex naturae akin to that of Scholasticism, but diverges in the moral domain, where creation stems from God’s will within the Covenant—not from rational structure, but from divine will alone. Human beings are created in Covenant with God and subject to divine order. Society itself is based on the Covenant—God’s responses and human obligations provide the foundation of human institutions. As Althusius states, beings are symbiotic: born into a bond with both God and humanity, upon which they depend for survival.The moral order of creation, rooted in the Covenant with God, permeates politics and governance, as well as family, church, economy, and all aspects of social life. Social and political order are covenantal or federal because moral order originates from these relational agreements established from the earliest human communities.

Within this order, individuals act as representatives of entire social groups. Adam, for instance, represents humanity in creation, disobedience, and sin. Christ represents humanity in redemption, obedience, and salvation. Each social sphere—family, city, province, church, and kingdom—has representatives who serve as the head of the organization. Although humans were created in Covenant with God, they have fallen into sin. Therefore, earthly power must be limited, as it partially results from that sin. Controls are thus necessary to guide humanity toward the good, toward justice, which ultimately resides in God. God’s covenantal activity does not end with creation but extends into human community and history. Humans live in symbiotic interdependence with one another and with God. The federalist hope for social justice and salvation ultimately rests in God’s will and action.

Althusius adopts this political theology—theology, as it reflects on the relationship with God, and political, as it explains and guides society and institutions: The covenant is the foundation of all civil and political association. Society evolves from private to public associations, from smaller to larger entities, all bound together by covenant—from city to province and from province to kingdom. Members of smaller groups are collectively represented in the larger bodies to which they belong. Humanity is joined through covenants and symbiosis among its members, thus asserting collective rights. Decisions are more effective when made by groups gathered in covenant and aligned with the level at which the problem arises. This is one of the key features of federal political theology: ensuring that every decision and every issue of governance is addressed at the level closest to the people, problems, or circumstances involved. More complex issues require attention at the local level.

The idea of coordinating various jurisdictions over a single territory through covenant proved particularly attractive during the Protestant Reformation. It was seen as a solution for enabling the coexistence of multiple faiths or denominations within one territory. Along this theological, historical, and institutional path emerges the central idea for this epistemic community: the pact, covenant, compact, or Beruf, in Elazar’s terminology. All these terms originally relate to Israel’s communal tradition, conceived as a formula for the distribution of power across territory—an idea drawn from Althusius. According to this view, covenantal structures are already present in the Old Testament, from which Althusius drew many examples. Other scholars cite Heinrich Bullinger as the precursor, though Bullinger remained within theological reflection, without exploring the political implications.

From this point onward, institutional studies of this tradition shifted toward philosophical analyses of the works of Reformation thinkers, particularly Calvin, and toward political theology conceived as a branch of political philosophy—as defined by Carl Schmitt: “All significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts.” ♦

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Recommended Citation

Ava, Pablo. “Federal Theology as Political Theology.” Canopy Forum, August 29, 2025. https://canopyforum.org/2025/08/29/federal-theology-as-political-theology/.

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