In its first part, this essay maps various ways in which Christian theology has tried to make sense of the notion of Israel’s election: as simply an expression of Israel’s religious self‐consciousness (Friedrich Schleiermacher, Naim Ateek), as serving a larger goal in the divine economy (N.T. Wright, missional hermeneutics), and as the result of a divine falling in love (Michael Wyschogrod, Jon D. Levenson, R.W.L. Moberly). Finding all these approaches theologically wanting, in its second part the article develops an alternative approach, embedded in a supralapsarian Christology. The third part of the essay refutes the idea that supralapsarian Christology leads to supersessionism (R. Kendall Soulen) and argues that rather the opposite is the case: on the account of Israel’s election offered here, the covenant with Israel cannot be superseded because it is rooted in the very being of the incarnate One himself.

Focusing on the work of N.T. Wright, J. Louis Martyn and Douglas Harink, in this article I offer a theological analysis of the debate between salvation‐historical and apocalyptic readings of Paul as a debate in Christology. I argue that in the end both these positions are christologically deficient in ironically similar ways: both positions conceive of Christ as accidental to the divine intent for creation, a notion that falls short of the robust Christology Paul adheres to. I offer an alternative that preserves both the notions of a salvific history and an apocalyptic revelation, but is also imbedded in what I call a supralapsarian Christology.

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Interpretation 207 use, thanks to the concluding sections that end every chapter.

What theological resources do mainline churches have to counter ecclesial division and strife? Recent American discussions have invoked the idea of a "covenant" as the basis for the unity of the church. Strikingly, these discussions conceive of covenant as being of human making. This essay instead recommends the idea of a divine covenant as the basis for the church. This is supported by an analysis of the idea of divine covenant in the ecclesiology of the former Netherlands Reformed Church.