Beeke's goal with this work is to explore the historical foundations and the developments of the doctrine of the two kingdoms that explain God's rule over the physical and spiritual worlds. The introduction offers a survey of existing scholarship on the two kingdoms in both Lutheranism and the Reformed tradition. Beeke's study asks the question, “What did the Reformed, and especially the Reformed orthodox, teach concerning the duplex regnum Christi?” He also sets out to explore whether Reformed interpretations changed over time or differed among theologians, and why they held their particular positions (14). Beeke broadly argues that, “whereas early Protestant representatives perceived of the two kingdoms (or twofold kingdom) predominantly in an ecclesiological and/or political context, increasingly the Reformed orthodox thought of the twofold kingdom in a Christological and therefore covenantal framework” (19).
Chapter 2 lays out the foundational concepts from early Christianity through a broad overview of patristic writings and the Middle Ages on their understanding of Christ's kingdoms. Beeke examines the work of John Chrysostom on “two kingdoms” and Augustine of Hippo and his “two cities.” For the Middle Ages he looks at Pope Boniface VIII and his conception of the “two swords,” Thomas Aquinas and his affirmation of Christ's kingdom and his vicars of priests and the pope on earth, and William of Ockham and his separation of the authority given by God to church and to state. Beeke notes that Ockham's writing influenced Martin Luther. He also asserts that elements “of a duality in Christ's royal work” is foundational to Christian theology (38).
The primary focus of the rest of the book is how the leaders of the Reformation from Luther onward interpreted Christ's two kingdoms. Chapter 3 examines Martin Luther and his two-kingdoms doctrine. For Luther, the basis of his two-kingdom construct was Adam's fall (postlapsarian) from God's plan and his original righteousness, and as a result, man must be redeemed from his sinful state.
Chapter 4 explores the Reformed leaders John Calvin and Martin Bucer's contributions to the theological concept. John Calvin included his view in the 1536 edition of the Institutes and continued to shape it through the various iterations of this foundational work of the Reformed faith. For Calvin the two kingdoms were found in the gospels, with “the one spiritual and eternal, in contrast with the other as political and temporal” (76).
Chapters 5 through 8 concentrate on the continued exploration of Christ's twofold kingdom in Reformed centers of Leiden, Geneva, and Edinburgh into the early eighteenth century. Beeke's study shows that there is broad continuity within the Reformed faith, but not surprisingly, the interpretation of Christ's twofold kingdom does change. An interesting point the author makes is that local political situations did not significantly shape the interpretation of the doctrine in the three cities examined. Beeke alludes to the controversy over modern interpretations of Christ's twofold kingdom, and their disconnect to the more historical ones, but he leaves that controversy to author scholars.
The work is based on Beeke's dissertation. More revisions to the organization of the manuscript would have created a more accessible work with broader appeal. The book's primary audience is fellow Reformed historical theologians. While the three chapters that focus on authors in Leiden, Geneva, and Edinburgh offer brief historical context for each locale's importance to the Reformed theological development, expanding the historical context would provide a more nuanced discussion. Beeke's book offers a broad historical overview of the complex doctrine of the twofold kingdom, and its key points of development by Reformed theologians, a doctrine that remains a point of conflict in contemporary discussions over the roles of church and state.
