The Letter of James, Paperback/Addison Hodges Hart

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Description The Letter of James is perhaps needed more than ever today. In this commentary, Hart argues that the epistle is indeed the work of James of Jerusalem, "the brother of the Lord," that it was an encyclical letter, and that its chief concern was to combat a distorted version of Paul's gospel. It is a work with a singular purpose: to bring the churches back to the most basic teachings of Jesus. In its defense of orthopraxy as the primary Christian standard, its denunciation of those with wealth who exploit or neglect the poor, its hard words for those who have taken on the mantel of "teacher" without first learning to restrain their tongues, and above all its exhortation to relearn the truth that "faith without works of love] is dead," James could be talking to churches in our own time. This commentary presents James afresh, as a living guide with a perennial message for those who seek to follow Jesus. It is pastoral in intent, written for those who teach and preach, those who desire a more authentic discipleship, and those who practice lectio divina--the meditative reading of Scripture. (Includes the entire Greek text and the new English translation of the epistle by David Bentley Hart.) "Addison Hart's commentary on James accomplishes the difficult task of placing the epistle in its historical and cultural context, including its dialogue with strands of Pauline thought and Jesus's teachings, while at the same time making the epistle come to life for the modern reader. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it." --Roman A. Montero, Author of All Things in Common: The Economic Practices of the Early Christians "The apostle James comes alive in Addison Hodges Hart's fascinating commentary on this New Testament epistle . . . In his own way, James was clearly as powerful a figure as Paul in the early church, advocating a subtly different take on Jesus's teaching, and is someone whom Christians still need to hear and understand if they are to know God in their hea