Erasmus allowed his religious beliefs to evolve in response to the Reformation's theological debates: in 1524 he gave in to pressure to write against Martin Luther and his position on free will; by 1527 he had begun to develop a theology of grace remarkably similar to that of leading Protestants. A chief source of evidence for Erasmus' theological views can be found in his changing understandings of Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans and other teachings during this period.

Erasmus in the Footsteps of Paul is the first book to investigate Erasmus' negotiations of Romans in the Reformation world. Greta Grace Kroeker examines Erasmus' Annotations, Paraphrases, and the texts of his polemic with Luther -- De libero arbitrio and Hyperaspistes 1 and 2 -- to show that although Erasmus never left the Catholic Church, his struggles with the Reformation's central issues were instrumental to his growth as a theologian.