Participation & Covenant in Puritan Theology

While from one vantage point the Reformation can look like the disenchantment of the world, our focus here will be on its re-enchantment. For it is a great mistake to see the Reformation as devaluing participation. Indeed, no less a figure than Karl Barth recognized an important Platonic strain in Protestant theology present from its origins. Rather, the Reformation must be seen as reconfiguring traditional notions of participation, above all within a covenantal matrix. In two senses the Puritans can be seen as important contributors to a revisionist perspective on participation and Protestantism. Firstly, they offer a chastened metaphysics of participation alive to the sheer contingency of all things and their covenantal bond with their Creator, which was Augustinian and indeed Scotist in spirit. Secondly, they provide evidence of the continued place of participation within Protestant and Reformed theology and its role in giving rise to a profoundly Christian, integrative vision of reality which remains an inspiration to this day.