James

An African American Reading

Sherman Haywood Cox

sherman.cox@Vanderbilt.Edu

Vanderbilt University Divinity School

Nashville, TN USA

Aug 20, 2004

 

                      Abstract

            The purpose of this paper is to give a contextual reading of the biblical book of James and compare it to the reading found in the Global Bible Commentary.  The Global Bible Commentary reading is by Cristina Conti who is at the Seminary of the Salvation Army in Buenos Aires and she is from the context of Uruguay.  My reading is as a middle class African American preacher who is addressing concerns of the African American community.

                In the first section I will present the context of my own reading and the reading of the Global Bible Commentary (GBC).  This section will include an introduction to the life context of my own reading in contrast with the GBC.  Then I will conclude this section by completing an analysis of the life context and the theological issues arising from both contexts.  In the second section I will present an African American contextual commentary of the book of James in two parts.  The first part is an analysis of the general message of the book.  Then I will close this section by a closer look at a few passages from the book of James.  In the third section I will compare my reading to the reading in the GBC.  In the final section I will analyze how my reading addresses the context presented earlier.

 

THE AFRICAN AMERICAN LIFE-CONTEXT OF THE INTERPRETATION

My reading of the African American community will emphasize four problems that face many African Americans in the United States, especially the poor members of that community.  The first of these features is how the lack of acceptance of racism attempts to make those in the African American community feel irrelevant or unimportant.   Another feature is the glorification of the rich and riches that often accompanies the market economy.  The third feature is a growing individualism that is in the fabric of the self-understanding of the United States.  Finally, within this community, there is a feeling of nihilism or a loss of hope that comes from the three other factors working together.

Many in the African American community believe that racism is a prominent and defining feature of American life.  Racism seeks to force African American’s into the belief that they individually and collectively they are not important.  They are irrelevant and they are nobody according to racist ideas.  The fact that this ideology is internalized by some African Americans can be seen in that many African Americans act as though their products and those of others in the community is not as good as those found in the larger community.  This internalization of the belief that the African American community is irrelevant is the first feature of the African American community that I will use to interpret James.

The second feature of the community is a glorification of the rich and the great desire to become rich at any cost.  The consumerist economy of the United States has infected the community with a desire to obtain things even when sufficient resources are not possessed.  Often individuals end up going into great amounts of debt to satisfy this desire for more or some end up in turning to crime in an attempt to get more.  The American Market Economy uses marketing to place desires for things that are not needed in all of its citizens to keep the economy going.  The African American community is a part of this larger community and is internalizing the principles of it.  Just as the community too often internalizes the principles of racism that the larger community teaches, the community also internalizes the principles of the rich.  This is the second feature of the African American community that I will use to interpret the book of James. 

Next there is a growing individualism in the United States among African Americans.  This consists of “looking out for number 1.”  This idea is also a large part of this country’s self-understanding.  Thus the community internalizes the rugged individualism that the United States prides itself on.  This individualism pushes individuals to think of themselves as an individual rather than a member of a community that might provide healing and act as a buffer against the mindset of the larger community.  Those with this individualistic mindset will be less likely to take up causes that help others in the community.  The mindset also removes the individual from help the community may provide. 

Finally there is a growing threat of nihilism, or loss of hope, in the African American community.  Because of the internalization of the principles of racism, consumerism, and individualism, there is a growing threat of just giving up.   This loss of hope is a three-fold one.  The internalization of the principles of racism teaches the community to not value the self or others in the community that pushes to a loss of hope in self and the community.  The internalization of the principles of individualism works with the principles of racism to make the individual African American think that they are alone in their battle that also promotes a sense of hopelessness.  Finally the mindset of consumerism that judges value by monetary means alone pushes those of this community to value themselves less because of the lack of monetary resources in many of this community.  Thus the internalization of these three principles works together to promote hopelessness in the community.

Comparison between GBC and my context

            The Uruguay context described by Conti seems to be largely an economic one where the middle class is shrinking.  Conti seems to be speaking from the context of the poorer.  In my African American reading the economics is important, but factors in the results of racism as well.   Thus my reading incorporates both the middle class and the poorer classes in the three features that have conspired to produce the nihilism in the lower classes.  Although the nihilist threat is largely seen in the lower classes of the African American community the other three factors apply to all classes that makes the threat of nihilism always a present concern to all of the community.  For example, African Americans can show the internalization of the principles of racism when they act as though an African American business is inferior.  They show the internalization of the principles of consumerism when they go into huge amounts of debt to “keep up with the Joneses.”  They also show the individualistic threat by removing connection to the African American community and acting as if they made it on their own without help and refusing to help others in the community. 

Conti’s often speaks of corruption and favoritism as important to her context.  Those points are important in contributing to the nihilist threat in the poor of the African American community.  However it also applies to others in the African American context because of the assumption of racism that is a form of favoritism that is assumed to affect all in that community rich and poor.

 

Analyzing the Life Context:  African America and James

 

In this section of the paper I will look at the book of James through the lens of the African America community and notice three features of the text that address my defined context.  The first of these is the idea of the diaspora that clearly shows that the message of James is to a community much like the African American community in the United States.  The second feature of the text is a call to remove the mindset of the world from the community.  The final feature of the text is a call to live in another reality.  The idea of diaspora reminds the community that they are somebody and valued and they do have a home somewhere.  The community does not have to give up to nihilism for God is still their God.  This addresses the mindset of racism that seeks to teach the community that it is not important.  The idea of removal of the mindset of the world reminds African Americans to not take on the racist or consumerist or individualistic mindset of the United States and live like a community who speaks and works for and others.   But the main problem of the community is not primarily a lack of knowledge.  So the text should remind but also do something about the lack of faith that is not a lack of knowledge.  The final feature calling for a living in a new reality calls the community to take steps to live in the new reality that God provides.

Next, I will read the African American Community through the lens of James.  Then I will note that James seems to call for an outright rejection of and complete separation from the world.  This is helpful when the world is conceived as consumerism, but should not be mistaken for the world as the United States.  The history of the African American community calls for a different interaction with the larger community than this. The second feature is that the African American community does not seek to fall into passivity that a reading of the book of James could teach for clearly James teaches faith without works is dead just as it teaches endurance.

The African American community has in common with the community of James a feeling of being scattered among a larger community that does not accept them.  The author of the book addresses the letter to a group in diaspora (James 1:1).  One can see this feature in the text as the “rich,” which seems to represent the “world,” take the poor of the community into court (James 2:6) and fail to pay a rightful wage (James 5:4). This is definitely in line with the experience of the African American community that is not allowed to be fully a part of the larger community.  That community knows of being thrown before courts because they fit the “profile” whether rich or poor.  African American’s know of not making the same money for the same jobs or even not being allowed to borrow money that others at their income level are allowed to borrow. It is of note that the author of James speaks to the people of God and thus God is still communicating with the community even though they are scattered.  As the African American community reads the book of James they can recognize that God is still interested in the community in diaspora and thus the community should never totally give up.  This feature in the text works against any ideas of nihilism.

Another feature of the text is the call of James to remove the mindset of the world.  James speaks of rejecting the mindset of the world that glorifies the rich at the expense of the poor.  The community had taken on this mindset and was showing favoritism for the rich as well as allowing their selfishness to guide them.  To James the mindset of the world is a glorification of the rich and selfishness.  For community health this world must be denied.  The African American community finds itself in a consumer-oriented society that teaches individualism, racism, and consumerism.  Teaches looking out for self at the expense of the larger community.  It also teaches that the African American community is not as important as other parts of the larger community.  James teaches against this by reminding the community to not take on the mindset of the world we find ourselves in.  Do not take on consumerism that will lead to covetousness and ultimately place things above God.  Also do not take on the mindset that places individual interests above the community.  And finally do not take on a mindset that denigrates any part of the larger community on the basis of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion or any other way.

Another important aspect of the text is the entering in of the new reality that the text explains.  It is one thing to tell the African American and the James community of a better world but it is another thing to reach what Mitchell and Cooper-Lewter speak of as core belief the of African American’s with this message of hope.  James speaks of another reality.  James attempts to help the readers in the James community to internalize in the minds of the community this mindset.  Here James provides a way to enter this new reality.  The community enters this reality by prayer, singing songs, ritual action such as anointing with oil (James 5:13-20).

James reminds the African American Community to deny the mindset of the world that teaches individualism, racism, and consumerism that attack community and spirituality.  James also reminds the community that they, like the community of James, are a community in diaspora and yet God has not forgotten them.  Racism, Individualism, and Consumerism may attempt to lead that community to nihilism, but James reminds the community never to give up on hope.  James strengthens the attempts to strengthen hope by attacking the basis of consumerism and individualism by emphasizing the need to reject the faulty mindset of the world.  James also strengthens hope by reminding the community that God is still looking out for them and will set things in order. James also strengthens hope in the community by reminding the community that God cares about the community though no one else seems to.  And after reminding the community of these things James asks the community to come and live in this new reality that was spoken about through actions that unite the community and change the reality of the community for James teaches that prayer changes the world in that the sick recover (James 5:15) and even stops the rain (James 5:17). 

As we look at the African American community from the book of James we see that James calls for an outright rejection of the larger community by the community of God.  This outright rejection can be seen in the demonization of the world as “earthly, unspiritual, devilish” and “selfish ambition”(James 3:13).   This is in contrast to the “wisdom of the world” which the God community is to follow (James 3:15).  The utter rejection of the world can be seen in the statement “…do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?  Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:3).  My reading would be careful to distinguish the Market Economy as the “world” rather than the United States itself.  It is the market economy that is the cancer that has infected both he United States and the African American community.  The African American community has always noted the United States has done great evil and wickedness unto it, but it has also recognized that demonization of the United States cannot help the community.  American has something to say to the world and thus the African American community does not wish to totally mute it.  The African American “…would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa.  He (sic) would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he (sic) knows that Negro blood has a message for the world.  He (sic) simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both Negro and American…” (DuBois, 3)  Also the African American community has a work to do in that community to make it better.   The best of the African American tradition does not neither demonize the United States nor deify it, but recognizes that this cancer of consumerism created by the market economy should be attacked and overcome knowing God is on the side of justice.

The second important component of the message of James that is at variance with African American tradition is the passive waiting that another reading of the book of James could teach.  In James 5:1-7 James notes that God will overcome Rich oppressors and thus we should wait on God to do this.   This African American reading cannot accept such a passive waiting because it does not accept America as unredeemable.  This reading sees a work for the African American community to do.  While there have always been those in the African American community who believed the United States was unredeemable wicket, the history of the African American community shows that good can come from active involvement.   As we look at slavery and the abolitionists who would not give in to the idea that America was unredeemable and wicked.  This thought continued through the history of the Civil Rights Movement that continues to teach the importance of active involvement.  All of these things teach the community that God will help the community to overcome thus this reading will not accept that the larger community is unredeemable wicked or that the only thing to do is reject and leave the larger community.

GBC AND MY READING

The GBC commentary has much in common with my reading in that it also is written from the perspective of outsiders.  Conti sees as a central message of the book a practical working for the poor and needy as the essence of faith.  This reading is in common with my own reading from the African American history that calls for an active working to show the validity of our faith.  Both Conti and my reading are the same here. 

Conti spends a lot of time addressing how the rich and the poor are addressed in the church and the larger community. My African American reading deals less with the economic features in that the group I am addressing seems to be more heterogeneous and includes poor and middle class.  While Conti does speak of a “shrinking middle class,” it is still the economic reality of poverty that unites the community she speaks to while what unites my community is the experience of racism.   One might question this assertion in that I talk of nihilism being created by the lack of economic opportunity by much of the community.  While this is true, the ingredients for the nihilism, I argue, is in the middle class as well for the racism, individualism, and consumerism is a part of that community is well. 

The important passages in my reading are James 1:1 that identifies the readers as in diaspora.   Other important passages that will be examined closer are James 2:1-11, James 2:14-16, James 4:1-10, James 5:1-12, and James 5:13-20.  Conti explicitly states that her reading does not seek to teach a message of “escapism” that is “purely eschatological,” but her reading does not actively address James seeming withdrawal from confrontation with the world.   My reading explicitly reads against any kind of reading that would imply a passive waiting on God. 

In this first phase of my contextual reading of James I presented three features of the African American context that I used to read the book of James through.  I then compared this context to the context of the commentary of James in the Global Bible commentary.  I then used the African American context to read James and then used James to read the African American context.  Finally I compared my reading to the GBC reading. 

CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

In this section of the paper I will present a summary of the biblical book of James and then closely examine James 2:1-11, James 2:14-16, James 4:1-10, James 5:1-12, and James 5:13-20.

Overview of James

            The author of the Biblical book of James is said to be “James the servant of God” (James 1:1).  Tradition has identified this author as James the brother of Jesus who became the head of the Jerusalem church.  The recipients of the letter are the twelve tribes in dispersion (James 1:1).  The text paints the picture of a group of poor believers who are going though trials.  For my reading it is not important whether this was actually James the brother of Jesus.  It is just enough that it is a letter from someone purporting to be a leader in the church to the church in diaspora with pastoral concerns of helping and strengthening.  The time of the reading is not important either for all my reading is reading it as a sermon to hurting people.  If this were written by an early 21st century pastor to a group of scattered persecuted parishioners today my reading would be largely the same. 

The book opens by describing the testing that comes to the people of God (James 1:2-4). These trials could not be from God for God does not tempt according to the author (James 1:13). But our trials come to the people of God either from the people’s sinful desires (James 1:14) or from rich oppressors who fight against them, For example they take them to court (James 2:6) and they oppress by giving them poor wages (James 5:4.)   But wherever the trials come from a good outcome is guaranteed (James 1:4).

            Not only are the followers of God assured of a good outcome, but also if the followers of God ask for wisdom it will be given (James 1:6).  In fact every good gift is from God above (James 1:17).  Because of this the followers of God should be doers and not just hearers of the word (James 1:22).  But in contrast to that high calling the author of James sees that the followers of God have taken on the principles of the world by placing the rich on pedestals (James 2:1-6).  Such “favoritism” is in direct contrast to the “royal law” (James 2:8) of God.

            It appears from the book of James that the author is addressing those who might think that a belief alone apart from “works” and apart from “words” would be efficacious.  The author attacks this mindset with the graphic idea that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).  James implies that those who have true faith should look different in works than those who live by the principles of the world.  But also James teaches that it should affect the words of believers as well because the power of the tongue is stated and the need to bring the tongue into subjection (James 3:1-12).  James teaches that followers of God are those who live according to the royal law.  This law is against all forms of favoritism as well as affects the deeds and words of the believer.

            Then the people addressed by the author of James changes to the rich who will be destroyed (James 5:1-6). Here the readers actually get to “overhear” the message of condemnation to the rich.  I assume that these rich are not in the community.   This is added to once again encourage the believers to be patient and know that God will set everything in order (James 5:7) “for the coming of the Lord is near” (James 5:8).

            As the people of God wait on this coming they can be sure of the effectiveness of this vision of the future in that they get to live in this reality today.  For today the people of God can know that the future spoken of in James is certain because the sick get well by the action of prayer (James 5:15).  That prayer is “powerful and effective” (James 5:16).  Basically this opens the way to living in the new reality.  Finally not only are the believers to live by prayer, but they are to seek to bring back those who have fallen under the mindset of the world (James 5:20). 

Passage Commentary

In this section of the paper I will provide a commentary of six passages that speak to the issues of racism, individualism, and consumerism and the creation of nihilism as a result.  These passages are James 4:1-10, James 2:1-11, James 2:14-26, James 5:1-12, and James 5:13-20.  I will analyze each passage in turn and address how it speaks to the issues described.

James 2:1-11

In this passage the author of James addresses the acts of favoritism that are in the community.  James argues that such favoritism of showing preference for “a person with gold rings” over a person “in dirty clothes” (James 2:2) is not in line with “belief in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” (James 2:1).  This favoritism is shown to visitors who “come into your assembly” (James 2:2) and not members of the assembly.  However, this making of “distinctions” among visitors is to make such distinctions, according to James, among themselves (James 2:4).

This favoritism shows, according to James, that the community is using faulty judgement.  This faulty judgment can be seen in that the “God [has] chosen the poor in the world…” (James 2:5).  The community shows its separation from God by choosing the rich.  Also James questions the community’s preference for the rich when it is the rich that oppresses and takes the community to court.  Finally the rich “blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over [them]” (James 2:7).

James calls the community to fulfill the “royal law” which does not “show partiality.”  The community must follow the law of impartiality if the community is to be judged favorably.  James implies that one cannot be a law keeper while engaging in impartiality.  James notes that the community has shown preference for rich visitors over the poor visitors.  This shows a taking on the mindset of the larger community that is against the community.  James shows that this is a faulty mindset for the world hates the community of James as well as the God of the community.  In contrast James calls for a return to the royal law of God that includes not just adultery and murder but impartiality. Within the context described above James tells the African American community that it should not take on the mindset of the consumerist individualism of the American market economy that is at odds with the God that has brought African Americans thus far in the American sojourn.  The James community used the principles of the world to place the rich on a higher pedestal than the poor.  In a sense the James community was placing riches over the law of God that calls for equal treatment of rich and poor.  The rise in nihilism in the African American community can be traced to a taking on of the principles of this world (consumerism) in contrast to the principles of God.  Consumerism calls for a glorification of rich and the acquisition of things.  This is in contrast to the principles of God that includes being satisfied with what you have.  Like the James community the African American community has taken on the mindset of this world and has glorified rich and riches.  This “desire to obtain” when coupled with the fact that on average members of the African American community have less and when you include the history of racism, the loss of hope results.  James speaks to the community and has a call to follow the law of God that is the opposite of the law of the world.  Just as James calls the people of God to give up showing preference to the rich, James calls the African American community today to follow the opposite course of love neighbor as self.  Just as principle calls the James community to go back to the principles of God it reminds the African American community to leave the principles of Consumerism which call for a loving of self first.

Also the call to follow the royal law of God is a call to live in the new reality that God gives. This is a reality where impartiality takes place and the poor are taken care of.  A reality where women are not discriminated against and gays and lesbians are not brutalized.  One enters this reality by keeping the law of impartiality inside of the community.  It is noteworthy that if the community lives in line with this principle that the principles of the new reality would begin to take place in this world through the community.  This will provide proof of God’s care.  In other words the living out of the principle of impartiality will provide proof that the new reality will come into being.

James 2:14-26

This passage immediately follows the call for a lack of partiality and doing the will of God.  It appears that there were some in the community who believed that as long as they had faith there was no need to do any works that would benefit the poor in the community.  They may have believed that all they had to do was believe and there was no other requirement on them.  James attacks that kind of belief by saying that faith cannot save you without any works.  James states that faith requires the taking care of those in the community that do not have food. 

Faith, according to James, cannot be shown apart from works.  James appeals to the history of Rahab and Abraham.  Both were shown to be great in faith.  However they did something that showed their faith.  James wishes to emphasize that you must work if you truly have faith in God and this work must be for the good of the weakest in the community.  In this reading of James faith is an active belief in God’s promise that sends the hearer to action.  One cannot have true faith without action because faith includes the action.  James says that works show faith, without works there is no faith. 

It is noteworthy that Abraham and Rahab are identified for both are important people in the development of the community.  The actions of Rahab, an outsider, showed that Rahab identified with the community.  Abraham, who became the father of the community, also became the father by the action of leaving home and thus identifying with the humanity.  Rahab welcomed the people of God and aided them.  Rahab was identifying with the new reality and believing that God was bringing through the Israelite community and her actions were aiding that reality to take place.  Abraham was living in Ur and was called out by God to go to a land that God would show Abraham.  When Abraham followed the directives of the new reality and left what he saw and knew to go to what God was telling him then the foundation of the community came into being.  In both cases the individual worked in line with the new reality even when that new reality was not seen and in both cases the new reality broke in as the individual followed that new reality. 

James tells the community that faith without works does not even deserve to be called faith.  Here faith makes no sense without acting in line with the new reality that is spoken of by God.  Thus James tells the African American community that merely speaking about the new reality of impartiality that God has promised is not enough.  James pushes the African American community by asking if you have faith or belief in God and thus believe that God will institute the new reality than you must continue to work actively for the new reality.  You cannot fall back into a “faith alone apart from works.”  Faith alone is not edifying.  You do not have faith in God and thus truly believe in the new reality if you will not work for it.  Just as those in the James community that do not treat the poor correctly do not have faith in God, African American community does not have faith in God who calls for equality if the community does not work for it. 

This feature of the commentary seeks to emphasize that the best of the African American tradition does not demonize the United States of America.   To be true to this idea I will not name the world the United States of American.  Instead I name the world the market economy that has taken over both it and the African American community.  The African American community will show its belief in the God of the new reality by working for the new reality.

James 4:1-10

In this passage James returns to the conflicts that are in the community.  James believes that the root cause of this is that members in the community want things that they are not able to have.  Covetousness, according to James, causes murder.  This covetousness even infects their prayers as the community asks just to receive so that they can spend.  This mindset once again is seen as a worldly that must be resisted for the friendship of the world is at odds with God.

James calls for the community to resist the devil, cleanse hands, and draw near to God.  Humble self and god will exalt the community.  Instead of grasping the answer is to humble self.  James tells the community that the mindset of the world which includes covetousness will produce murder in the community for the community wants something they do not have or can not have.  This feature in the text speaks directly to the individualist consumerist mindset that has helped to produce nihilism in the African American community.   James speaks directly to the covetousness that causes the market economy to run.  Advertisers in the market economy seek to promote and produce covetousness in the larger American community as well as the African American Community.  This covetousness has taken root.  Because too often because the community “does not have” due to lack of funds, or “can not have” due to racism the community ends up taking to crime to get what the world (the market economy) tells them they want or need.  I do wish to make a distinction between being ambitious and being covetous.  Here I define covetousness as desiring what you cannot have today or do not need and being willing to do illegal and unhealthy things to obtain.  This is different than wanting and desiring something that you have to save for or get later.  I believe that America is moving to the point of needing covetousness to keep it’s economy going and thus tries to teach covetousness versus ambition which would wait until the right time. 

Once again James is calling for the community to do actions that show that they are living in a different reality than the reality of the world.  In this one the community is told to resist the devil.  Such a statement is calling for action against the devil.  In this context we could interpret as actions that work against the devil’s program.  Actions of giving to the community would be resisting the devil.  Looking out for others versus solely self as individualism pushes would be resisting the devil.  There are two realities.  James is telling the community to resist the devil’s reality and live in God’s reality.  The promise is that if the community resists the devil the devil will flee.  Here is another call to do actions against the other reality and that strengthens God’s reality.

James told the community to resist the devil (mindset of the devil that is covetousness) and the devil will flee from you.  James calls the community to draw near to God and humble self.  This is a call to give up the mindset of the world and take on the mindset of God that includes humility.  James speaks to the African American community today by saying to give up the mindset of consumerism that has helped to produce the nihilism in the community.  Give up the covetousness and take on humility instead.  James tells the community to take the mindset of God that is at odds with the community of the world.  James tells the African American community today to take on the mindset of God (humility and being content) in contrast to the mindset of the world (covetousness as the mechanism of the market economy). 

James 5:1-12

In this passage James begins by changing the people addressed from the community to the rich oppressors.  Here the rich oppressor is predicted to soon lose their riches because of the oppression of not paying the laborer the money owed.  The rich oppressor is assured that the oppressor will lose all that the oppressor has.  Because of this the community should be patient knowing that the end is near.  Do not grumble; know that a compassionate God is looking. 

James speaks to the rich oppressors that have oppressed the community and lets them know that their day of reckoning will come.  The African American reads this as an implicit attack on any who would oppress.  Thus their racist oppressor would also be seen as coming to an end.  This section is primarily a view of the new reality or God’s reality.  While it may look like the rich oppressor is succeeding in reality God’s reality that the community is to walk in shows that the end of the oppressor is to come to pass.  The African American cannot give up in a nihilistic despair, but should believe that the end of this racist order will come.

This waiting, as noted before, is not a passive one.  The James community was not to passively wait for James called them to actively take on the mindset of the world and actively resist the devil by resisting the mindset of the world.   They were to work for the poor and the principles of God within the community. 

James 5:13-20

            How does the community know that the alternate reality that James speaks of will come to pass?  In this passage of scripture James begins to address this question.  James provides actions that can be completed in the current reality but point to a future reality.  James asks if there are any suffering (James 5:13).  If so “they should pray” (James 5:13).  The cheerful should “sing songs of praise” (James 5:13).  The sick should have the elders anoint them with oil (James 5:14).  Here the community does actions in the current reality that point to a different reality. 

            This new reality is a reality where the sick are healed and even the rain stops and starts when the community prays.  James is saying that the current reality becomes changed, just as when Elijah prayed, when the community takes steps towards the new reality.  As we noted before the prayer not only changes the reality but also it changes the community.  Changing the community changes the reality.  For example the elders are called to pray and anoint the sick.  This unites the community and works against the individualistic mindset.  This ritual action of anointing the sick makes a community of people who look forward to the new reality where there are no sick.  That community that looks forward to the new reality transforms the community itself into a community where the new reality can take root. 

The book of James directly attacks the nihilism in the African American community by attacking the covetousness that causes crime to increase while individuals seek to get what cannot be had because of racism and a general lack of funds.  In contrast James calls for a glorification of humility that works against the love for self over love for others.  The book of James also attacks racism by reminding the African American community to fight against it, but know that God will set it straight for the oppressor will pay for the oppression.  Finally the book of James calls for a living in a new reality that changes the current reality of the community. 

 

The GBC Commentary and My Reading

In this section of the paper I will compare the GBC reading to my reading.  I will first give a quick overview of the main problem addressed by my reading and Conti’s reading.  I will do this by first discussing the passages of scripture that both readings have in common.  I will then discuss the passages that Conti emphasized that I did not.  I will finally discuss the passages that I emphasized that Conti did not.

Conti’s commentary is written to directly address favoritism and the gap between rich and poor.  It would seem from the reading of the commentary that Conti sees that the biggest problem as a lack of knowledge for Conti spends much time discussing that James addresses the impartiality of God.  Thus my reading of Conti sees a lack of knowledge as the biggest problem and the book of James answers this lack of knowledge by giving facts.  My reading looks at the African American community and sees a “forgetting” of the principles of God’s reality in the African American community.  In addition to the forgetting of these principles there is a lack of faith or vision in the African American community.  I have seen both of these aspects as part of the nihilism that is becoming more prevalent in the African American community.  James addresses both of these by reminding the community of the principles of God, which constitute a new reality in contrast to the reality of the world.  James then invites the community to enter into that new reality by actions of works and ritual action.  This includes actions to build up the community (works and not just faith) as well as actions like prayer. 

Conti and I both address James 2 and James 5:1-6.  Conti uses James 2 to address the prevalence of partiality towards the rich and how God calls for the poor to be taken care of especially in light of the fact that God will judge by the royal law.  Thus in Conti’s presentation James 2 tells the community to take care of the poor for God is on their side and judgement will come to the people who do not do this.  I address James 2 as a reminder of how the new reality of God’s kingdom looks.  In it there is not any partiality towards the rich.  In the second half of James 2 my reading calls for actions in line with this new reality as being imperative and required. 

Conti sees James 5:1-6 as a condemnation of the rich.  Conti sees it as meant for the reading of the community to console them.  This is in line with the belief that a lack of knowledge is needed by the community to make it through the issues that they have to deal with.  My reading is essentially the same in that I see it as a “reminder” again to the community who get to “overhear” the downfall that will come to the people who have the principles of the world.  Conti uses these passages of scripture to provide information to the community to help the community overcome the lack of knowledge that is holding them back.  In contrast my reading sees the information presented as reminding the community of the new reality that they should walk in.

Conti uses James 1:9-11 and James 4:13-15 which I do not address.  In these scriptures the poor are exalted and the rich brought low.  Once again Conti provides more information to the community.  This information is designed to inform the poor that they are God’s chosen and thus give them hope.  I do not address either of these passages.  To use this scripture would require me to address the partiality for the poor and thus could call for some interesting actions.  For example an action in line with God’s partiality of the poor could be to give all ones money for the poor and basically become poor.  For it is through poverty, according to James, that one becomes rich.  My reading does not address this although I would need to in the future of my studies wrestle with this issue. 

My reading uses James 4:1-10 and James 5:13-20 as important components.  James 4:1-10 shows that covetousness as important in the community that leads to the nihilism.  Conti probably does not address this in that the community that is addressed needs hope to make it through the economic oppression of rich others.  This passage points at the community and indicts them for internalizing the principles of the larger community, which is an important part of addressing the market economic factors that have overtaken the community.  In James 5:13-20 I see James providing some actions to begin living in the new reality.  This is an important point in my reading in that living in the new reality must be done to address the nihilism in the community.  Conti only needs to give information that will provide economic hope to those in economic poverty so she skips the call to healing the sick and prayer.

Conti’s basic message is to provide hope through information to the poor in Uruguay.  Conti does this by letting the poor know that god does not favor the rich and that the rich will be brought down whether in the community or outside of the community.  This presumably will give hope to the community. 

My reading addresses the basic nihilism in the community by reminding the community of the new reality of God and then provides actions to step into that new reality.  My reading sees the problem of the African American community as basically a lack of faith or vision in contrast to Conti whose community seems to be faced with a lack of knowledge.  I think that my reading includes much of Conti’s concern in that my reading reminds the community of the God reality that I have called the new reality.  But more than that I emphasize that a patient waiting that Conti seems to be pushing for would not be effective in this community. 

OVERALL CONCLUSIONS

My reading provides a call for the African American community to step into God’s reality by actions of prayer and community action.  Individuals in the community who have not completely given over to despair are the only ones who can do such actions.  In effect my reading only addresses those who have not totally reached nihilism and wish to take steps back.  What must be done however is for the community to show the God reality.  If enough of the community has not totally given up to nihilism and incorporate the ideas of God then the community will see the new reality.  If that happens the community will raise up those who have fallen into despair.  But if too much of the community has already fallen into nihilism then this reading will simply fall on deaf ears and will not be helpful. 

It does seem as though my reading may be unrealistic as far as expecting that the community will turn from the ways of the world (consumerism) towards the way of God (impartiality, looking out for others).  But then again God’s reality always looks unrealistic to the world.  The fact that it is unrealistic to those who are living according to the mindset of this world is proof that it is not of this world.  Perhaps I should be concerned if the idea totally made sense to me.  In the end my reading calls for a radical entry into God’s new reality by actions that may not seem to make sense (community action, prayer, anointing with oil).  My reading does not require the community to understand how it will work.  It only requires that the community should take its steps to the God reality.  In that reality nihilism will be eliminated and the community will show God’s reality in the world and thus transform the world for the community is a part of that world.  

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Achtemeir, Paul J. HarperCollins Bible Dictionary. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

 

Braxton, Brad R., No Longer Slaves: Galatians and African American Experience. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 2002.

 

Conti, Cristina. James Global Bible Commentary. Nashville:  Abingdon, 2004. 

 

Cooper-Lewter, Nicholas and Mitchell, Henry H. Soul Theology: The Heart of American Black Culture. Nashville: Abingdon, 1986.

 

DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Co, 1903.

 

McMickle, Marvin A. Preaching to the Black Middle Class: Words of Challenge, Words of Hope. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 2000.

 

Pregeant, Russell. Engaging the New Testament: An Interdisciplinary Introduction. Minneapolis: Fortress Press: 1997.

 

Stewart III, Carlyle Fielding. African American Church Growth: 12 Principles for Prophetic Ministry. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994.

 

West, Cornel. Race Matters. Boston: Beacon Hill Press, 1993.