Federal thinking is foreign to the modern mind. “Federal” has come to mean nothing more than centralized or big. Because our federal government has become so uncovenantal, it is not surprising that the original meaning of the word is lost. But federal thinking is the backbone of historic Protestant theology, and the Church needs to recover the covenantal understanding of federal headship. Husbands are to lead their families, taking responsibility for them as covenant heads—as federal husbands.
Reforming Marriage, by Douglas Wilson, began the discussion of covenant headship. This collection of essays, the Federal Husband, continues that discussion in greater depth, dealing with more specifics of federal husbandry.
