The nature of authority. Knox's answer was that ultimate authority in both church and state is vested in the Scriptures, the word of God. Knox's consistent proclamation and application of the regulative principle characterized his debates about where authority lay, especially in worship and ecclesiastical issues.

The issue of predestination where Knox was a firm advocate of God's total sovereignty and absolute control over his creation. Knox's soteriology was characterized by the fundamental issue of the elect and the reprobate.

Knox's covenant theology, where Knox is seen as the founder of the Scottish practice of covenanting, which he derived from Scripture as well as from the ancient feudal practice in Scotland of banding.

A lengthy treatment is accorded to the legitimacy of resistance to government. Here Knox is set forth as more radical than Calvin as he touted the right of revolution against tyranny by not only lesser magistrates, but directly by the people as well, and even in certain cases by individuals. In all this Knox argued consistently from Scripture. The weakness of Knox's arguments in some of this, which the author fails to note, is that he  frequently argues from the Sinaitic Covenant, a covenant that has passed away and is no longer in force.

Knox's views concerning female rulers in the civil state. Knox was providentially faced with three Marys, all civil rulers who opposed him. Mary of Lorraine, the Regent of Scotland, Mary Tudor, of Bloody Mary fame, who returned England to Catholicism, persecuted the Protestants, and drove Knox into exile, and Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, who opposed his reformation in Scotland. As a result he wrote the "First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment (i.e. rule) of Women." It was published secretly in Geneva and infuriated Calvin when a year or so later he discovered what had happened under his nose. By then the Protestant Elizabeth had ascended to the throne of England and Knox's polemic condemning female rulers was a political  embarrassment. Knox ever the man of principle, refused to recant, but did allow that God occasionally made exceptions such as Deborah and that if Elizabeth would rule in a godly fashion according to God's word she could be accepted. Elizabeth, a proud and haughty ruler was not pleased at this concession.

The book ends with a review of Knox's thought on social issues such as education (Knox placed this under the control of the church so the religious element in education could be properly emphasized and controlled), democracy (Knox was not particularly democratic, except in his giving the people the right to revolt against ungodly and idolatrous rulers, and did not seem to favor any specific form of government, as long as the government upheld the true faith and suppressed all idolatry according to his application of the Sinaitic Covenant to our times.), and social welfare (Again, adopting the example of the treatment of the poor in the Old Testament Hebrew commonwealth, he provided for the care of the poor, again much of this directed through the ministry of the church. Knox seemed to see the nation as composed of only those acknowledging the true faith, with all idolaters and blasphemers, executed or suppressed, and therefore thought in terms of a parish church rather than a gathered church and saw the work of the deaconate as extending to the entire community.)