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Soteriology under Construction: The Case of James
Abstract
The soteriology of James should not be evaluated or described in terms of any other soteriology in the New Testament. In the past this has led to a very negative indictment of James, like Luther's statement that James is a “book of straw”. Many modern day scholars still judge James negatively in terms of other New Testament writings as being not sophisticated, not Christological and so on. In this article I argue that this is indeed correct to judge James like this: The letter does not present a sophisticated theology or soteriology or Christology and is closely aligned to Jewish Wisdom writings. But this is not a negative, as so many seems tot believe. James is theologically not on the same par as Paul or the majority of the other New Testament writings. It represents a much earlier stage of theological development. It is a window on a faith under construction, and if James is viewed in this light, the book's unique contribution to the Christian faith can be fully appreciated.
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Three questions form the basis of this analysis of the relationship of the Epistle of James to the traditions of wisdom, eschatology and apocalypti-cism. What kind of traditions are involved in James? What is the world view of James? What audience or community is presupposed by this wri-ting? Foremost is the connection that James demonstrates to the wisdom tradition evident in the Old Testament and extra-testamental literature. In particular two types of wisdom tradition are noted in James: practi-cal wisdom advice as expressed in short sayings, wisdom instructions and admonitions and reflection on the nature of wisdom (1:5-8; 2:1-7; and 3:13-18) as coming from God. Finally, the question of how much apocalyptic symbolism is evident in the eschatological world view of the epistle is addressed.
Because the biblical interpreter in dealing with texts must deal with language, and because language is a social product, methods must be found which can deal with that social dimension of the biblical texts.
This study re-examines the proverbial ‘patience of Job’, its function in the letter of James, and the hypothesis that the author derives the motif from the pseudepigraphical Testament
of
Job. Particular attention is paid to the use and abuse of the category of parallelism in the study of the NT and the literature of antiquity. While there is not sufficient evidence to settle the source-critical question, the recontextualization of the Job tradition in James sheds light on the relationship between eschatology and ethics in early Christianity and Hellenistic Judaism.
Die Gesetzesinterpretation bei Paulus und Jesus soll durch ein erstes Eingehen auf die Beiträge der modernen Toposforschung gefördert werden. Dieses Vorhaben ruht auf der Voraussetzung, daß biblische Exgeten sich nach wie vor den Methoden der literaturwissenschaftlichen Forschung verpflichtet wissen, und daß die moderne Toposforschung für die Exegese von besonderem Interesse ist. Dieses Interesse wird allerdings im negativen Sinn dadurch bestimmt, daß im Fall der Gesetzesinterpretation bei Paulus oder Jesus methodisch immer noch weitgehend einseitig, wenn nicht gar ausschließlich historisch oder theologisch vorgegangen wird. Im positiven Sinn aber wird das Interesse an der modernen Toposforschung dadurch bestimmt, daß man in der literaturwissenschaftlichen Arbeit, zu der ja die biblische Exegese gehört, neuerdings von ‘radikalen Veränderungen’ spricht, die angeblich notwendig sind angesichts der Forderung, daß in dieser Arbeit ‘nach den Regeln eines expliziten Argumentationsschemas argumentiert… und über den Status der verwendeten Daten, Begründungen, Stützungshypothesen etc. entschieden und die empirische Qualität von argumentativen Ergebnissen diskutiert werden soll’.2 Beim Eingehen auf diese Forderung verdient der rhetorische Topos besondere Beachtung.
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