Toolbox

Welcome to The Toolbox!

If we are going to set about the mission of reconstructing the culture to glorify God, then we need to make sure we have a toolbox of the right tools for the job.

“In the Toolbox” is a regular feature page of the Institute for Principled Policy where members and guests will interact in discussing some of the resource materials found on our site.

We will be doing this in the style of a “book club”, taking one of the books that you can obtain from our site and analyzing it in depth, as well as discussing how the theme or thesis of the work has impact in the development of principled policy options.

Our first “tool” in the box will be the book “That You May Prosper: Dominion by Covenant” by Dr. Ray R. Sutton, published by The Institute for Christian Economics.

Sutton’s work is specifically directed toward the thesis that there is a Biblical covenant framework which is a unifying structure of the Bible, and the understanding of how that five point covenantal model works out throughout Scripture is a guide in understanding the application of Biblical truth to the jurisdictions of the family, the Church and the state.

In the foreward to the book, Professor Milton Fisher highlights that disputes or debates over management, public policy, political theory, etc. all get down to how five questions are answered. Those five questions are:

1. Who’s in charge here?
2. To whom do I report?
3. What are the rules?
4. What do I get for obeying or disobeying?
5. Does this outfit have a future?

Sutton restructures those five questions in covenantal format. A handy acronym for the model is THEOS (“God” in Greek). The covenantal questions are ones of:

1. Transcendence
2. Hierarchy
3. Ethics
4. Oath
5. Succession

Sutton develops the thesis of these five covenantal points in the first part of the book, and then applies them to the legitimate spheres of jurisdiction in the second part. A series of ten handy appendices allows readers to see the covenantal model through both the Old and New Testaments and answering key questions or challenges to the five point covenantal model.

So stay with us as we discuss Sutton’s thesis and its application to our culture. Our next post will be a discussion of the Introduction section of the book….

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