The Puritans helped establish American reverence toward a written constitution by organizing their system around a stunning idea: God was offering them a deal, a contract… the Puritans insisted they had biblical warrant for their covenants. Had not God made a covenant with Noah, abjuring His own power to destroy the earth by flood? And […]

The Puritan covenant would develop into a pillar of the American regime. For one thing, once the covenant idea takes hold, even a king can be accused of violating it. More important, covenants were forerunners of constitutions. As Kenneth Wald points out, the American Constitution not only reflects the covenant tradition but echoes its biblical […]