The Election of Grace: A Riddle without Resolution?

Stephen Williams brings a discussion of the issues that arise in debates about election. In subsequent days, Dr. Williams details Karl Barth’s view on the topic of election and the related topics of Christian perseverance and particular atonement, including an exposition of Romans 9-11. Dr. Williams then developed Barth’s single predestinarian view and addressed the doctrine of assurance in conversation with Barth’s own views.

Biography

Stephen Williams (PhD, Yale University) is professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological College. He was born and received his early education in Wales. He holds MA degrees in Modern History from Oxford University and Theology from Cambridge University and, after a year studying Practical Theology in Aberystwyth, Wales, he was elected Henry Fellow at Yale University (1976-7). He subsequently pursued doctoral studies at the Department of Religious Studies, Yale University. From 1991 until 1994, he was based in Oxford at the Whitefield Institute for theological research, during which time he also tutored in Philosophy of Religion for Oxford University, from where he took up his present position in 1994. Stephen Williams has published in different areas in biblical studies, theology and intellectual history, including Revelation and Reconciliation: a window on modernity (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and a volume on Nietzsche, The Shadow of the Antichrist: Nietzsche’s Critique of Christianity (Baker Academic Press, 2006)