Theological Perspectives On The Epistle Of James -- By: Peter H. Davids

Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 23:2 (Jun 1980)
Article: Theological Perspectives On The Epistle Of James
Author: Peter H. Davids


Theological Perspectives On The Epistle Of James*

Peter H. Davids**

Even to begin to write about a theology discovered in the epistle of James takes a little boldness, for Martin Dibelius denied just such a possibility in his commentary.1 James is paraenesis, a miscellaneous collection of teachings from various sources without any internal coherence among its various themes. Fortunately, however, research on James has moved beyond the form-critical work of Dibelius. At the same time the latest German revision of Dibelius’ work was being published, F. Mussner produced a truly new work in which he boldly argued for theological unity in the epistle, discussing its theological ideas in a series of excurses.2 Similarly R. Hoppe’s recently published dissertation argues that there are larger unities in the epistle than Dibelius believed and that the two themes of wisdom and faith appear as the great theological contributions of the work.3 In other words, the study of James has now moved from the period of form criticism into that of redaction criticism. The age of the string-of-pearls conception of the letter is past, and its essential theological unity is ready for exploration. Furthermore, at least one author has found a literary form--that of the literary or secondary letter with a doubled introduction--into which the epistle as a whole fits.4 It is this overall form that will give us a basis for extracting the theological message of the epistle, however limited our survey must be.

If then it is legitimate to look at James on the redactional level, one will discover that the epistle is primarily Leidenstheologie, an expression of a theology of suffering with a long history before James’ Christian version. Naturally it is impossible for us to give a full discussion of the development or ramifications of this theological conception. We will simply sketch some of the major points as we move along.

*This paper, delivered at the April 11, 1980, meeting of the Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, is a condensation of work done by the author for his 1974 University of Manchester dissertation, Themes in the Epistle of James Which Are Judaistic in Character, and extended as the introduction to his forthcoming commentary on the book.

**Peter Davids is assistant professor of Biblical studies at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.

Within the context of Leidenstheologie James’ primary concern is with ...

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