This essay appears as my "Publisher's Preface" to John Calvin, The Covenant Enforced, edited by James B. Jordan (ICE, 1990)* I had several goals in publishing this collection of John Calvin's sermons on Deuteronomy. The first was to provide primary source evidence to answer the question: "Was Calvin a theonomist?" These sermons reveal clearly that the answer is yes. Second, I am interested in Calvin's social theory. This question interests me both as an historian and a social theorist. Was there something unique about Calvin's social theory that separated him both from the medieval theorists who preceded him and the Lutherans who were his contemporaries? Third, and less relevant to the broader social and historical issues, I wanted an answer to the question: Is theology as taught in contemporary Calvinist seminaries consistently covenantal and Calvinistic, or has it drifted off into other paths? I say less relevant because contemporary Calvinism is today a minor institutional eddy in the broad stream of evangelical ism, a movement identifiable by the shrunken condition of its seminaries and also of the denominations that still profess and enforce the historic Reformed creeds.

This pamphlet reprints North's preface to John Calvin, The Covenant Enforced. North argues from Calvin's writings that Calvin believed that the Mosaic law should form the foundation for Christian socio-political reflection. Calvin further held that the curses and blessings of the covenant, enunciated by God in Leviticus 26 and reiterated by Moses in Deuteronomy 28, are still in force today.