# Covenant and Salvation (Horton)



## RamistThomist (Jan 23, 2014)

Horton, Michael. Covenant and Salvation.

Horton attempts to give a full-orbed defense of Reformed soteriology, utilizing current scholarship, identifying potential weaknesses, and communicating this in a new and cogent manner. And he has largely succeeded.

Similar to other projects, Horton places salvation within a covenantal framework, drawing largely upon the findings of Meredith Kline. In short, Horton posits a "Tale of Two Mothers," referring to Galatians 4. After a brief discussion of Ancient Near Eastern Suzerain Treaties, Horton shows that God's promise to Abraham was unilateral, involving no stipulations nor any potential sanctions on Abraham. This continues through the Davidic covenant and finds its fulfillment in Christ. The Sinaitic covenant, on the other hand, is specifically sanction-oriented. The difference between these two covenants is crucial to Horton's later argument. Horton asserts: "The deepest distinction in Scripture is not between Old and New Testament, but between covenants of law and covenants of promise that run throughout both" (17).

Horton then responds to the New Perspective on Paul. Contrary to the myths about Lutheran re-readings, Horton demonstrates from Sanders' own findings that the 2ndTemple Rabbis (and probably Sanders himself) were semi-Pelagian. If they were semi-Pelagian, as Sanders' own writings attest, then the "Lutheran" critique isn't eisegesis at all. Horton then advances an interesting critique of N. T. Wright. Rather than entering the shrill hysteria that is standard polemics on the NPP, Horton points out that Wright conflates the Sinaitic and Davidic covenants. So when the covenant "climaxes" for God's people, is it the covenant of promise (David) or the covenant of bondage and death (Sinai, Galatians 3-4)?

Horton has a sharp section on justification and imputation. Justification, on Horton's gloss, is not a legal fiction because Christ is the covenant-head, and if the justified are "in Christ," then they possess his covenant status (105). Horton shows that a lot of Wright's arguments on covenant and salvation, while sometimes shedding helpful light on the issues, really don't make sense outside Palestine. When the Philippian jailer asks what he must do to be saved, is he really talking about the end of national Israel's exile? If works of the law mean ethnic markers, then why is Paul accused of antinomianism?

The second part of the book deals with different ontologies. Contrary to the Radical Orthodoxy group, Horton posits a "Covenantal Ontology" which is focused on "meeting a stranger" rather than "overcoming estrangement." The latter is an application of almost all descendants of Platonic ontologies of anti-bodiement. 

Covenantal Ontology: The pactum salutis is the intra-Trinitarian covenant made in eternity. It is realized in the biblical covenants. See also pp. 182-186. Horton notes that Radical Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Roman Catholicism presuppose something along the following lines: overcoming estrangement. By this he means a paradigm that promises enlightenment and a liberation of nature beyond itself (155).

EXCURSUS: A RESULT OF A PLATONIC SWALLOWING-UP?
Several times throughout this book Horton advances a critique of Platonic Divine Simplicity, but never calls it such. He has a section on John Milbank and offers a full-orbed convincing critique of Milbank. As readers of Milbank know, he is strongly committed to the neo-Platonic doctrine of absolute divine simplicity and overcoming ontological estrangement. To put the matter briefly, such a view of simplicity negates or mutes distinctions. Horton then goes on to say, "As speculative metaphysics (specifically ontological participation) swallows up the horizon, Christology is swallowed by ecclesiology, and redemptive mediation has to do with overcoming metaphysical binaries (finite/infinite, material/spiritual,invisible/visible, corporeal/incorporeal, temporal/eternal, and so forth) rather than ethical and eschatological ones (sin/grace, death/life, condemnation/justification...this age/age to come" (165. /END EXCURSUS)

The book ends with placing the traditional Reformed ordo in a communicative context. Horton wants to avoid some of the hang-ups the Reformed scholastics had when they used medieval categories to challenge Rome. Instead, Horton argues we should use communicative categories, which makes sense since Christ is the Word. Horton suggests we should see effectual calling as a speech-act whereby God creates a new reality. This isn't that bad a suggestion, since it mutes the charge that Calvinism forces a God who forces the unbeliever's will. God does no such thing. Rather, he creates a situation, renewing the will (does renewal = violence? I hope not, 223). Throughout Scripture we see the Spirit "bringing things to life, into existence" (Ezekiel 37). Is it so hard to imagine he can do this to the human will?

Criticisms and Conclusions:

It is by no means clear that Horton's recapitulatory view of the covenants will carry the day in Reformed theology. I think he makes a strong argument, but in light of current debates its difficult to see how widely his view will be accepted. I think the section on speech-act theory is brilliant, but it needs to be fleshed out some more. I couldn't always follow or understand his connection between union with Christ and speech-act. 

Finally, while Horton appropriates some of the better arguments of Eastern Orthodoxy's essence-energies distinction, but it must be said that Horton's use of the E/e distinction is NOT how Orthodoxy uses it. Horton rightly wants to call attention to God's actions in history rather than our speculating on overcoming metaphysical binaries. He calls this "God's energies." Perhaps it is , but that is not how Gregory Palamas glossed the term. The energies for the Palamite tradition were how we know God. God, both essence and person for the Palamites, was hyperousia. Not only could you not know God's nature (which is largely a fair claim), but one wonders how you could really know the persons, since they too were hyperousia and whose idiomata were "merely inappropriate descriptions of an alien reality" (Lossky, _In the Image and Likeness of God_). Accordingly, we only know God by his "hypostatic energies." This is not what Horton is saying. Horton's project is much better.

Interestingly, at the end of the book Horton employs the essence/energies distinction to critique a number of non-Reformed position. Even more, he draws upon Reformed scholastics who evidently employed something like it. Horton has done heroic work. Milbank had offered a very challenging critique of Reformed ontology. Horton meets it head-on and and redirects it. He gives the most convincing (and charitable) critique of N.T. Wright.


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