For Whom Did Christ Die?

Book excerpt: A careful and exegetical reading and examination of the Pauline passages that suggests particular atonement, together with a thorough engagement with contemporary scholars on the subject. In For Whom Did Christ Die? Williams argues that according to Paul, Jesus died exclusively for the elect to achieve their salvation. The book attempts to show that particular atonement is not simply an abstract theological doctrine, imposed on the text by theologians, and void of a biblical or exegetical foundation, but that this doctrine is biblical, is Pauline, and that particular atonement can be detected in Pauline theology by means of a careful, exegetical analysis of the relevant Pauline texts and of the relevant texts in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism.