Reading James with New Eyes: Methodological Reassessments of the Letter of James

Description

The letters of James, 1 and 2 Peter, and Jude are among the most neglected letters of the New Testament. Thus, methodological advances in New Testament study tend to arise among the Gospels or Pauline letters. But now these letters are beginning to receive increased attention in the scholarly community. Reading James With New Eyes is the first of four volumes that incorporate new research in this area. The essays collected here examine the impact of recent methodological developments in New Testament studies to the letter of James, including, for example, rhetorical, social-scientific, socio-rhetorical, ideological and hermeneutical methods, as they contribute to understanding James and its social context. Each essay has a similar three-fold structure, making them perfect for use by students: a description of the methodological approach; the application of the methodological approach to James; and a conclusion identifying how the methodological approach contributes to a fresh understanding of the letter.

Robert L. Webb lectures in the Religious Studies Department of McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada. He is the executive editor of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus (Sage) and of the monograph series Library of Historical Jesus Studies (a subset of LNTS, T&T Clark). He is the author of John the Baptizer and Prophet: A Socio-Historical Study (Sheffield Academic Press, 1991) and more recently the co-editor with Kathleen Corley of Jesus and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ: The Film, the Gospels, and the Claims of History (Continuum, 2004) and with John Kloppenborg of Reading James with New Eyes: Methodological Reassessments of the Letter of James (T&T Clark, 2007). John S. Kloppenborg is a University Professor and Professor of Religion in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto, Canada. Recent publications include Christ's Associations: Connecting and Belonging in the Ancient City (2019), Vols. I and III of Greco-Roman Associations: Texts, Translations, and Commentary (with R. Ascough, 2011, 2020) and Q, The Earliest Gospel: An Introduction to the Original Sayings and Stories of Jesus (2008).

-Mention. The Chronicle of Higher Education/ July 13, 2007 Reviewed in International Review of Biblical Studies, 2007.