Latta, C: Election and Unity in Paul‘s Epistle to the Romans

The doctrine of election remains one of the most controversial, debated, and misunderstood issues in the history of theological discourse. Precisely because of an overemphasis on election as a theological abstraction, the textual and historical foundation of the phenomenon of election has too frequently been undermined, or lost all together. Election and Unity attempts to transcend certain theological postulations and debate by privileging the conception of election‘s scriptural and historical context(s). Nowhere in scripture is election more fully elucidated than in Paul‘s epistle to the Romans. Rather than proposing Romans to be some grandiose theological treatise concerning divine choice, Election and Unity interprets Paul‘s treatment of election in light of a primary reason for writing the great epistle-the establishment of unity among the ethnically and ideologically diverse congregations in Rome.