God and Israel

John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost consciously seeksto justify the ways of God to men. The Apostle Paul's magisterialletter to the Romans does not so much intend to defend God's ways as to declare God's Wordâa Word made public in thegospel. InRomans 9â11this declaration occurs within the context ofGod's troubled relationship with Israel, both past and future. God and Israel traces the ways in which providence and purpose are realized as God's Word to and about Israel in Romans 9â11. Written by gifted and tested Pauline interpreters, the volume offers a fresh reading of this vexed and vexing part of Paul in the context of Romans and the Pauline witness. God and Israel squarely tackles the questions ofPaul's understanding of salvation-historical time (L. Ann Jervis); the faithfulness and sovereignty of the covenantal God (Michael Wolter); Paul's mythic rhetoric of ingrafting (Davina C. Lopez); the disputed relation between Israel and her enemies, the Gentiles (J. Ross Wagner); the role of Christ in God's purposes and his relation to the nation of Israel (Simon Gathercole); and, finally, the unfailing eschatological hope for Israel's full inclusion (Jonathan A. Linebaugh). If only simple solutions are sought for the challenges Paul's gospel and his letters pose,frustration will result. But if readersfollow the Apostle to theGentilesas he wrestles with ultimate questions of God's purposesin his own anguish over kith and kin,then wisdom will befound.