The question of election as a determination of destiny, specifically, the problem of perseverance

This third lecture begins the biblical consideration of the doctrine of election with a consideration of election in the Old Testament.  The primary trajectory of Williams lecture is towards evaluating the dichotomy of election as privilege and election as responsibility.  Leslie Newbigin and his emphasis upon election as responsibility becomes Williams’ primary interlocutor.  Williams’ concludes that we ought to maintain the component of responsibility in election, but not at the expense of privilege in election.

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)