Creed, Confession, and Cooperation
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 67, No. 2 - Spring 2025
Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By Gerald R. McDermott. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2024, xxii+426 pp., $44.99.
In A New History of Redemption, Gerald McDermott boldly goes where few theologians go these days: he provides a single narrative of the Bible’s “history of redemption” centered upon Christ which begins with creation, moves through the Old and New Testaments, and on to a theological interpretation of history—past, present, and eschatological future. Along the way, he engages world religions, major philosophers, and the relationship between Christians, Jews, and Muslims. He also demonstrates premodern approaches to interpreting Scripture which are not much in vogue today. The result is an impressive metanarrative of salvation history which fuses exegetical, theological, and historical reflection into one storyline.
Jonathan Edwards provided McDermott with the inspiration for the book. McDermott, who retired from the Anglican Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School in 2020, is a prominent Jonathan Edwards scholar also known for his work on world religions, Christian Zionism, and Anglican theology. A New History of Redemption is his attempt to bring together a lifetime of reflection on these subjects in creative dialogue with Edwards. In 1739, Edwards preached a thirty-sermon series entitled “A History of the Work of Redemption” where he sought to trace what he understood to be the central theme of the Bible—the work of redemption of sinners in Christ—from creation to new creation. Before his unexpected death in March 1758, Edwards planned to transform this series into a lengthier work, featuring a new method where theology is “thrown into the form of a history.” McDermott’s book is essentially a reimagining of what Edwards would have written had he “had more time and the benefit of later scholarship” (1).
The book divides into six parts with thirty-three chapters. The first third of the book contains what we might call McDermott’s biblical theology, his interpretation of the development of the theme of “redemption” from creation to the resurrection of Christ. It features McDermott’s substantial use of typological and figurative exegesis of Old Testament passages. “Redemption and revelation after Eden and before the cross,” he notes, “were reflections of the light that was shining back from the future of what God would eventually do in Israel and Jesus” (26). Seen through this light, the Old Testament becomes a text pregnant with types and pictures of Christ and gospel realities which are more fully realized in the New Testament.
Examples of McDermott’s typological exegesis abound. Enoch’s translation to heaven (Gen 5:24) speaks to the future reality of the resurrection, that “God would redeem not only [human] souls but also their bodies” (37). The great flood and Israel’s redemption through the Red Sea are types both of the Messiah’s judgment upon his enemies and of the redemption of his people through the waters of baptism (40–41). Narratives related to Abraham (56-58) contain numerous pointers to Messiah’s future redemption: circumcision prefigures the sacrament of baptism (both Edwards and McDermott affirmed infant baptism); Melchizedek’s bringing of bread and wine after Abraham’s defeat of the kings (Gen. 14:18) pre-figures the Eucharist (a conclusion affirmed by the church fathers); the smoking furnace that passed through the slaughtered animals (Gen. 15:12-21) represents “the sufferings of the Messiah, and the lamp the glory [represent what] his sufferings earned” (58); and Isaac’s figurative resurrection from the dead (Heb. 11:19) pictures Christ’s literal resurrection.
Dozens of such examples could be cited. Their combined effect helps readers see the thoroughly Christian character of the Old Testament as well as the ways in which pre-Enlightenment evangelicals interpreted Scripture. Contemporary readers who prize a “literal” hermeneutic that fixes final meaning to the human author will find a strange world in many of McDermott’s exegetical conclusions.
Part five, “From Christ’s Resurrection to the End of the World,” features McDermott tracing the theme of redemption across church history. These nineteen chapters are both illuminating and frustrating. They are illuminating, because they highlight a theological reading of history which posits the progress of redemption as a central principal coursing through God’s providential dealings in the world. They are frustrating, because McDermott is forced by page limitations to offer only a summary of the eras of church history and their relation to his redemption thesis. Thus, as a Christian historian, the “Christian” in me rejoices with McDermott’s admirable attempt to view the eras of church history through the lens of theology (i.e. “redemption”). The “historian” in me, however, craves more detail and further substantiation for his claims.
Interestingly, references to Edwards rarely show up in this section. This is probably because Edwards’s vision of church history is at significant odds with McDermott’s. As an evangelical Congregationalist with strong New Light affinities, Edwards saw little of worth in the medieval Christian tradition. In addition, he viewed the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church as Antichrist like most other Puritan-inspired Protestants of his age. McDermott, by contrast, possesses a far more inclusive and ecumenical vision of church history, appreciating the “tactile piety” of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions (pilgrimages, relics, and icons). He does not articulate the significant differences that existed between Catholic and Protestant soteriologies of the sixteenth century; he is fond of the Oxford Movement among nineteenth-century Anglicans; and in part six of the book (on eschatology), he presents a biblical case for purgatory. Thus, while Edwards deeply inspired McDermott’s venture into the “history of redemption,” we get two widely divergent paths of how that history played out.
Despite these criticisms, Baptists and other evangelicals will benefit much from the book. It introduces readers to the ways earlier Protestant evangelicals interpreted the Bible, ways which underscore the Christian character of Scripture. It inspires the Christian historical imagination by offering examples of how we can understand God’s providential dealings in church history. Ultimately, McDermott challenges readers to situate themselves in this “history of redemption” by taking seriously the call to live a life of devotion, sanctification, and holiness for the glory of Christ. If a book can do all that, even imperfectly, it is well worth reading!
