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James 1: 16-27 Religion that Cares for the Vulnerable

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Martyrdom of James the Just By Authors of Menologion of Basil II (circa 985 AC, Constantinople), Byzantine manuscript illuminators

James 1: 16-21

Words highlighted have notes below on translation.

  16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters. 17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave birth to us by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

  19 You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

In contrast to the desire, sin, death conception metaphor in the previous section we now have the first fruits among God’s creatures of those who have received both a birth from above and gifts from above. In contrast to desire which is from this world is generosity and every ‘perfect’ (teleios) gift which comes from the Father above. Verse seventeen is one of the frequently used verses of James, particularly in the Eastern church where it is a part of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, and its sentiment that every good gift comes from above is clear. The title Father of lights likely relates to God as the creator of the sun, moon, and stars, but I also wonder if James is intentionally using the binary light and darkness to contrast the desire, sin, death path of darkness to the generosity and perfect gifts path of light. Also continuing the thought of God not being the source of temptation/testing now the Father of lights has no shadow and no variation. James does seem to lean into a more philosophical conception of God as the ultimate good and unchanging than many other parts of the scriptures, but James is also working in the binary language of the wisdom tradition: wicked/righteous, death/life, light/darkness.

God giving birth to us from above follows a similar metaphor to Jesus’s dialogue with Nicodemus in John’s gospel where one must be born from above.[1] Paul also uses the language of ‘first fruits’ to talk about both Jesus[2] and these followers of the way of Jesus.[3] Whether the word of truth is the teachings of Jesus, some direct revelation from God, or the law (Torah) is not clear, but it connects to the implanted word of verse 21 which comes from outside of us and gives birth to this new creation in the midst of the world. James is likely less concerned with the mechanism of how God transforms people from those on the path of desire, sin, and death to generosity and life than the fruits of that transformation. As Bede the Venerable, a well-known eight century English monk, stated:         

God has changed us from being children of darkness into being children of light, not because of any merits of our but by his own will, through the water of regeneration…we have become ‘the first fruits of his creatures,’ which means that we have been exalted over the rest of creation.” (Moore-Keish, 2019, p. 57)

To be the first fruits of creation for James means a transformed way of living. James in Acts is often portrayed as a peacemaker finding a way for the church and Jerusalem to accept the mission of Paul and others among the Gentiles. Anger is antithetical to James’s view of God’s righteousness. This pairs with Jesus’s teaching on anger in the Sermon on the Mount[4] where reconciliation is more important than sacrifice or worship. James, like Jesus and the prophets, does look for right practice more than right worship or right confession. The way of James is a way of listening, being slow to speak and slow to anger. Being slow to anger also echoes the characteristics of God given to Moses in Exodus 34, “The LORD, the LORD, A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34: 6).

Throughout the New Testament there are multiple times where newborn believers are called to change their ways, particularly in relation to anger. Two examples would be:

But now you must get rid of all such things: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.  Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices  and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. Colossians 3: 8-10

Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation. 1 Peter 2: 1-2

These first fruits are to root out the sordidness and wickedness clearing the ground for the implanted word that brings this new growth and fruit. James uses multiple interlocking metaphors to contrast the way of death with the way of life. Birth and field metaphors come together. Unlike Jesus’s parable of the wheat and the tares[5] where the good and the unrighteous grow together, James envisions a world where the field has been cleared of the bad growth which strangles the harvest so that there can be a full harvest of the first fruits of the seeds God has sown in the lives of the faithful.

James 1: 22-27

  22 But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
  26 If any think they are religious and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

James and Paul are often portrayed in conflict, where Paul talks about faith and James talks about works. It is plausible that James is aware of Paul’s teachings and is issuing a corrective note to those who have become overfocused on knowledge or wisdom to the exclusion of practice, but James’s language here would not be alien to Paul, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight but the doers of the law who will be justified.” (Romans 2:13) The reformation/counterreformation debates about faith opposed to works were focused on the wrong works, from the perspective of James. For James these works continue the concern of the law, the prophets, and Jesus to care for the vulnerable, to live a life in harmony with God’s will for the world, and to show mercy. Hearing and knowledge for James are not enough, but his teaching here again echoes Jesus.

“Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!” Matthew 7: 24-27 parallel Luke 6: 46-49

But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” Luke 11:28

James jumps to an additional metaphor of a person looking at themselves in the mirror and forgetting what they see being like the person who hears and does not act. What the NRSVue, along with most translations, render as ‘themselves’ is the Greek phrase to prospon tes geneseos, literally ‘the face of their origin (beginning).’ James may be wanting to indicate that the person looks at their ‘true self’ and then walks away from their true self into the paths that corrupt that self. But those who look at themselves in the light of God’s perfect (teleios) law of liberty and work (NRSVue act) in harmony with that law are happy/blessed their existence.

James turns to the topic of religion with two statements that look back on the previous argument and ahead to the remainder of the letter. James’s comments on bridling the tongue look back to his words of being quick to listen and slow to speak in verse nineteen and ahead to his lengthier discourse on the tongue in 3: 1-12. James’s pure and undefiled religion which cares for the vulnerable looks ahead to 2:14-17 and back to the reversals of 1:9-11.

Care for the vulnerable, particularly the orphan and the widow, is frequently highlighted in the law and the prophets:

 You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. Exodus 22:22

who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. Deuteronomy 10:18

James, like several of the prophets, argues for an understanding of religion that is less about acts of sacrifice in the context of the temple and centrally focused on the justice lived in society. Religion is not to bribe God with one’s gifts but instead to live in obedience with God’s will as expressed in the law. A mark of the faithfulness of one’s religious work is the way the vulnerable of the surrounding society are cared for in James’s view. A religion of unrestrained speech and ignored widows and orphans is a defiled faith to James.

[1] John 3: 1-10.

[2] 1 Corinthians 15:20.

[3] Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:13.

[4] Matthew 5: 21-26.

[5] Matthew 13: 24-30.

James 1: 1-8 The Wisdom of the Letter of James

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Jan Hus Memorial at Old Town Square in Prague built in 1915. Photo by Jorge Royan. Shared under CC BY-SA 3.0

James 1: 1-8

Words highlighted have notes below on translation.

 1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
  To the twelve tribes in the dispersion:
  Greetings.
  2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face various trials, consider it all joy, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance complete its work, so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing.
  5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6 But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7, 8 For the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

James, the author of the letter, has traditionally been understood as James the Just or James the brother of our Lord who was one of the influential early leaders of the church in Jerusalem.[1] Throughout this reflection my assumption will be that this is an early Christian letter, written in a similar time period to the letters of Paul, from a leader of the church in Jerusalem to the Jewish followers of Jesus scattered throughout the world. James introduces himself as a servant (literally slave in Greek) of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the translation of the Greek doulos as ‘servant’ in most English translations makes sense, especially with the history of how slaves were treated in the United States, it is worth noting that most of the apostles claim to be slaves/servants of Christ or God. In the ancient world a slave could exercise authority on behalf of their master, yet unlike a servant who is employed and can quit a slave was owned by the household. From a contemporary perspective in an individualistic society where personal freedom is highly valued it is worth being reminded that in the ancient world you were always bound to your family or the household you served. I do think for James the sense of obedience and servitude are an important part of how he sees the life of wisdom.

James and the author of 1 Peter are the only two New Testament authors to address their letters to the diaspora. Although at the time of the writing of James, assuming that the biblical James is the author, Israel and Jerusalem are not yet in rebellion against Rome, there are still more Jews living outside of Palestine in the diaspora than who live inside it. (Moore-Keish, 2019, pp. 20-21) At this early time, prior to 62 CE when James the Just is killed, the boundaries between Judaism and Christianity are still porous and many of the early followers of the way of Jesus Christ considered themselves a part of the Jewish people. Yet, there is also throughout the New Testament an adoption of the titles and language used for the Jewish people throughout the Old Testament to speak about the role of the new followers of Jesus throughout the church. Although James is writing in a manner that is highly reflective of the Hebrew Scriptures and Torah obedience, it is also likely that his audience may also include the churches of Paul and others among the Gentiles. James never mentions Sabbath-keeping, circumcision, or diet. Like the Gospel of Matthew, James attempts to write about a faith that is connected with Torah observance the letter is also shaped by a merciful reading of scripture which is shaped by both the teachings of Jesus and the prophetic witness before him.

Most modern translations will translate the Greek adelphos/adelphoi with ‘brothers and sisters’ rather than the generic ‘brother/brothers’ since James was addressing both men and women with the letter. What immediately strikes me as we enter into the letter of James is the way many of the early Christian writers are sharing a common vocabulary as they address the new followers of the way of Jesus Christ. James’s brief encouragement to find joy in their trials echoes Jesus’s words in the Sermon on the Mount:

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5: 11-12

Although James has been often read in opposition to Paul, his language throughout this letter often uses the same language and rhythms as Paul. Here in verses three and four you can see a similar pattern in Paul’s letter to the Romans:

And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance,  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,  and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Romans 5: 3-5[2]

In verse four we have the first appearance in the letter of the Greek teleios (NRSVue ‘mature’/NRSV ‘perfect’). This is an important word for James; the word is used twenty times in the New Testament; five of those uses occur in this short letter. Additionally, James utilized both the verbal form teleo twice and the substantive telos once. (Moore-Keish, 2019, p. 28) When I was working through Matthew’s gospel this was a word I wrestled with because I don’t believe that the word intends the sense of moral perfection that is often read into it.[3] Teleios is a word of destination and completion, and I like the NRSVue’s adoption of ‘mature’ for this word. James does want his readers to live a complete and mature life shaped by the path of God’s wisdom.

The letter of James shares many similarities with the wisdom literature in the Old Testament with its interest in shaping a life that is faithful to God’s intent as outlined in the law. Wisdom literature often contrasts the path of wisdom with the opposing path of foolishness. James contrasts the single-minded way of faith with the double-minded way of doubt. Faith and doubt are opposing ideas in James, and I believe that Joel B. Green captures the essence of James’s thought when he states that for James, “faith has more the sense of confidence.” (Green, 2025, p. 30) In the Gospel of Matthew ,faith had more the sense of openness and in Matthew’s gospel worship and doubt often coexisted, but James is approaching faith and doubt as opposites. James’s definition of faith is, ironically, incredibly close to Luther’s famous explanation of the first commandment, “We are to fear, love, and trust God above all things.” Faith and wisdom are a single-minded confidence in God and God’s ways. For those lacking in wisdom they are told to ask God confidently for the wisdom they need to lack nothing. The parallel use of ‘lacking nothing’ in verse four and ‘lacking wisdom’ five form an interesting parallel between ‘enduring trials’ and ‘asking God for wisdom.’

James targets those among his readers whose practice does not match their profession. They are double-minded because they want to be friends of God and friends of the world at the same time. (NIB XII:182) James’s thoughts echo Jesus’s words contrasting between those who try to serve two masters,[4] and it is telling that Jesus is contrasting those who serve God and wealth as James is about to contrast those of humble means and the rich.  

Martha L. Moore-Keish quotes a portion from the final letter of the Jan Hus, a reformer in Czechoslovakia (1369-1415) before he was burned at the stake that I want to close this portion of the reflection with because it wrestles with the themes of James in the concrete moment of temptation/trial:

Surely it is difficult to rejoice without perturbation, and to esteem it all joy in various temptations. It is easy to talk about it and to expound it, but difficult to fulfill it. Even the most patient and valiant soldier, knowing that on third day He would rise, conquering by His death the enemies and redeeming the elect from damnation, after the Last Supper was troubled in spirit…O most kind Christ, draw us weaklings after Thyself, for unless Thou draw us, we cannot follow Thee! Give us a courageous spirit that it may be ready; and if the flesh is weak, may Thy grace go before, now, as well as subsequently. For without Thee we can do nothing, and particularly to go to a cruel death for Thy sake. Give us a valiant spirit, a fearless heart, the right faith, a firm hope, and perfect love, that we may offer our lives for Thy sake with the greatest patience and joy. Jan Hus, from a letter written just prior to his being burned at the stake on July 6, 1415. (Moore-Keish, 2019, p. 25)

[1] Mark 6:3 indicates that Jesus has two brothers, James and Joses. James as a leader of the early church is mentioned in Acts 12:17; James plays a pivotal role in the Jerusalem council in Acts 15 (see verse 13) as well as meeting with Paul when he returns to Jerusalem in Acts 21: 17-26. Throughout Acts James is one of the leaders of the church and he often acts in a conciliatory manner between the church in Jerusalem and the Hellenistic mission of Paul and others. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, James seems to have enough influence and power to make Peter change his behavior.

[2] See also 1 Peter 1: 6-7:  In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

[3] See my reflection on Matthew 5: 33-48 and Perfection and Blamelessness in the Bible.

[4] Matthew 6:24.

Introduction to the Letter of James

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James the Just, 16th-century Russian icon

The Letter of James (or book of James) in the New Testament is either written by or attributed to James the brother of the Lord, one of the early leaders of the church in Jerusalem. If James the brother of Jesus, or James the Just as he is sometimes known, is the author of this letter then it is an early window into a Jerusalem based Christianity since James the Just was killed in 62 CE. Martha L. Moore-Kiesh expands on how early Christian writers elaborated on James’s martyrdom:

Eusebius, for instance, cites Clement of Alexandria, who say that James was “thrown down from the pinnacle of the temple and beaten to death with a fuller’s club.” Because of this legend, later iconography of James often portrays him with a club, recalling this alleged mode of his death. (Moore-Keish, 2019, p. 6)

Scholars for generations have debated whether the Letter of James is an early Christian document from a leader of the young church or a latter document attributed to James for authority. Ultimately it is impossible to know which is true but many of the arguments for a later date are not viewed as being as conclusive as they once were. For the purposes of these reflections, I am going to assume an early date and that the letter does originate with James the brother of our Lord, although I don’t believe that assumption will drastically alter the interpretation of this letter.

Some may be surprised to see a Lutheran pastor doing a detailed reflection on James since, especially in the Lutheran but also broader Protestant tradition James has often been neglected. Much of this goes back to Luther’s famous “Preface to the New Testament” (1522) where Luther compares James unfavorably with several other New Testament books:

In a word St. John’s Gospel and his first epistle, St. Paul’s epistles, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, and St. Peter’s first epistle are books that show you Christ and teach you all that is necessary and salvatory for you to know, even if you were never to see or hear any other book or doctrine. Therefore St. James’ epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it. (Luther, 1989, p. 117)

Luther’s distaste for James emerges from his conflicts with the Catholic Church over ‘faith alone’ verse ‘works righteousness.’ James’s strong words about faith without works being dead (James 1:17) provided ammunition for Luther’s opponents to attack his theological perspective. These reflections will not remain bound to the binary way of thinking that characterized the debate over Reformation/counter-Reformation theology.

 A large part of my reflection with scripture is dealing with texts which I am less familiar with to attempt to engage with the breadth of the wisdom of scripture. I’ve been excited to dig deeper into James because it seems to resonate with a lot of my work on Matthew and Revelation. It is coming from early Jewish Christianity (or Judaic messianism since some hypothesize that there has not been a split from Judaism at the time the book has been written) in contrast to the Hellenistic mission of Paul and some of the other disciples. Like Matthew it quotes, alludes to, and echoes the law, the prophets, and the wisdom traditions that make up the Hebrew Scriptures. As Scot McKnight states:

Few dispute the Jewishness of this letter…It appeals to the Tanakh often (1:11; 2:8-10, 23; 4:6; 5: 4, 5), alludes to it constantly (e.g. 1: 13-15, 27; 2: 20-26; 3:9; 4: 7-10, 11-12; 5: 10-11, 17), and breathes throughout the spirit of biblical Judaism as it came to expression in diverse ways in the first century AD. The author chooses to call his audience something thoroughly biblical—“the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” (1:1) (McKnight, 2011, p. 25)

It also is deeply connected to several of the teachings of Jesus, particularly the sermon on the mount.

The letter of James is a book that seeks a practice of faith that is authentic and single-minded. It stands in the prophetic and wisdom tradition which privileges a faith that is practices mercy and impartiality, particularly to the vulnerable, over worship or theology. As Luke Timothy Johnson states, “James’s concern is with moral rather than manners.” (NIB XII:179) It can be subversive text to societies and congregations that have organized themselves around a moral order where those with wealth and power have been encouraged to maintain their privileged position. It can be an uncomfortable book. I enjoyed Scot McKnight’s playful adaptation of a famous Mark Twain proverb, “To ape the famous words of Mark Twain, it is not the lack of clarity of context of James that bothers me; it is the words in the text that bother me.” (McKnight, 2011, p. 4) The letter of James is not hard to understand but that does not make it easy to embody.

I have been random in the order I have engaged scripture and although the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures are significantly larger than the New Testament I did not anticipate or realize until recently how much more time I had spent in these fourteen years of reflections in the Old Testament. I realized recently that I had completed thirteen Old Testament books along with most of Psalms and only two New Testament books and that I had fewer books in the Old Testament that I had not written on. My plan going forward is to alternate between the New Testament and Old Testament. The New Testament books tend to go slower for me since I fully translate the Greek Text (with Hebrew I look at critical words and study multiple translations) and I have greater familiarity with the texts. The letter of James is only five chapters, but I am looking forward in learning from my engagement with this letter I have probably underutilized.  

Resources for this reflection

With each of these reflections I have taken multiple dialogue partners to learn from. For this journey I have selected:

Green, Joel B. (2025). James A Commentary. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Johnson, Luke T. (1998) “Letter of James” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes. Nashville: Abingdon Press. (Referred to as NIB XII throughout the reflections)

McKnight, Scott. (2011). The Letter of James: the New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company.

Moore-Keish, M. L. (2019). James: Belief A Theological Commentary on the Bible. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Joel Green, Luke T. Johnson, and Scott McKnight were all New Testament scholars I was familiar with. Joel Green’s commentary just came out and I was excited to have him as one of my dialogue partners. Luke T. Johnson also wrote the much longer Anchor Bible commentary on James, but since he wrote the commentary in the New Interpreter’s Bible, I decided to capture his voice through a series I already owned. The New International Commentary (NICNT) by Scot McKnight is by far the longest commentary, and I’ve used the NICNT and NICOT commentaries in several of these reflections as a good, detailed commentary to assist with translation and other issues. The Belief series is a theological commentary, written by theologians instead of biblical scholars and I like it as a different voice coming with different questions.

Psalm 129 Hope in the Midst of Oppression

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Farewell Melody by Ravil Akmaev Shared under the Creative Commons 3.0

Psalm 129

A Song of Ascents.

1 Often have they attacked me from my youth
 —let Israel now say—
2 often have they attacked me from my youth,
 yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed on my back;
 they made their furrows long.
4 The LORD is righteous;
 he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion
 be put to shame and turned backward.
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops
 that withers before it grows up,
7 with which reapers do not fill their hands
 or binders of sheaves their arms,
8 while those who pass by do not say,
 “The blessing of the LORD be upon you!
 We bless you in the name of the LORD!”

Bolded words have notes below on translation.

Psalm 129 speaks a defiant word of confidence that the oppression they have experienced will ultimately be responded to by the God who sees their oppression. Living faithfully does not prevent the faithful from suffering but the faithful trust that God will not allow the oppressors to prevail but will act on behalf of the oppressed one. The psalm begins with the Hebrew word rabbat (translated Often in the NRSVue) a word that can indicate either frequency (as the NRSV and NRSVue indicate) or severity (NIV greatly). The psalm begins with the impression of an overwhelming and continual oppression by an unnamed enemy. The individual describes their pain metaphorically like their back being plowed like a field being prepared for harvest. Isaiah uses a similar image when God promises to deliver the people from their tormentors:

And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, “Bow down, that we may walk on you,”and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to walk on. Isaiah 51:23

And Micah speaks similarly of Jerusalem:

Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple a wooded height. Micah 3:12

The word translate cord (Hebrew ‘abot) can refer to the cords used to guide animals when plowing, continuing the metaphor of verse three, or it can refer to instruments of punishment used to inflict pain, making the wounds on the back metaphorically referred to as furrows. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 924) Without the intervention of the LORD the life of the poet would be similar to the character portrayed in Metallica’s song “The Unforgiven”

They dedicate their lives to running all of his

He tries to please them all, this bitter man he is

Throughout his life the same, he’s battled constantly,

This fight he cannot win

A tired man they see no longer cares

In contrast to the man who suffers in the lyrics of “The Unforgiven” the poet has hope that there is one who sees their oppression and acts to right the wrongs they have endured. Who cuts the cords that have cut them, who turns them backward and brings them to shame, who causes their lives to dry up like grass without soil of any depth.

Hate, in both Hebrew and English, is an emotionally charged word, but there are difference in meaning. In Hebrew to hate another person, “usually implies a distancing of oneself from the other person or thing rather than wishing the other harm.” (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, pp. 924-925) Within the poem the poet asks that the one who “hates” not receive the “blessing” of the LORD. The psalmist expects a world where the hate of the enemy is turned away and loses its power, much like the narrative of Balaam in Numbers 22-24 where he is brought in to curse the people of Israel and instead can only give words of blessing.

Like the suffering servant of Isaiah 50 and 53, the writer of Psalm 129 undergoes suffering and yet endures trusting in God’s eventual reversal of their situation. Like the suffering servant in Isaiah, this psalm brings the suffering of the individual and the suffering of the people together and speaks of them interchangeably. While reflecting on this psalm I was reminded of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians:

4 but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: in great endurance, afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 in purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7 truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors and yet are true, 9 as unknown and yet are well known, as dying and look—we are alive, as punished and yet not killed, 10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything. 2 Corinthians 6: 4-10

Paul, like this psalmist, is willing to endure suffering because he trusts that God sees and responds to his suffering. The psalm incorporates both the suffering of an individual and the suffering of the people of God who speak with a defiant faith that the LORD is a God who hears the suffering of the people, cuts the cords of the oppressors, and holds the judgment of the wicked in God’s hands.

Psalm 128 A Blessed Life for the Man, His Family, and His Society

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Parents with child statue, Hrobákova street, Petržalka, Bratislava By Kelovy – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1622776

Psalm 128

A Song of Ascents.

1 Happy is everyone who fears the LORD,
  who walks in his ways.
 2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
  you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.

 3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
  within your house;
 your children will be like olive shoots
  around your table.
 4 Thus shall the man be blessed
  who fears the LORD.

 5 The LORD bless you from Zion.
  May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
  all the days of your life.
 6 May you see your children’s children.
  Peace be upon Israel!

Bolded words have notes on translation below.

In contrast to the individualistic ways that most people of the modern west conceptualize their world, for most ancient societies and religions the primary unit is not the individual but the family. A good life started with a prospering family and then extended to the prosperity of the city and then to the nation. This way of thinking is reflected in this psalm about a blessed life for a man, his family, Jerusalem, and all Israel. This is a wisdom psalm as the key word happy (Hebrew ‘asre) should alert us.[1] Psalms 127 and 128 share several frequently used wisdom words along with the conception that following the path of wisdom leads to a prosperous household.

Fearing the LORD and walking in the way of the LORD leads to happiness/contentment and enjoying the fruit of their labor. Ecclesiastes may believe that the labor/toil we do is vanity, but even Ecclesiastes can state:

There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind. Ecclesiastes 2: 24-26

The contentment is not merely for the man (literally mighty one, Hebrew gibbor)[2] but for the entire household. Grape vines and olive trees are two of the critical agricultural products of Israel. The metaphorical linking of the fruitfulness of the land to the wife (or wives) and children of the man coincides with the view that children are a sign of blessing and barrenness is a sign of disfavor.

The blessing of this ‘mighty one’ and their family now is extended to Jerusalem and Israel. Jerusalem is the place where the temple of the LORD resides and where the hoped for blessing would originate from on earth, and the psalmist desires to hearer to see the prosperity (Hebrew tob, literally goodness) of the city throughout their life. Seeing grandchildren is a sign of old age acquired and a family which continues to grow. The psalm ends with the desire of peace (shalom) resting on Israel. The man (mighty one) has received a blessed life for himself, his family, and for his society.

Psalm 128 shares a common worldview with Martin Luther’s explanation of the first commandment as, “We are to fear, love, and trust God above all things.” Fearing the LORD and walking in the ways of the LORD in biblical thought leads to prosperity. There are righteous people who suffer, who may be barren, and the wicked do sometimes prosper, but for the psalms the belief that God will provide for the faithful is fundamental. The stated blessing in this psalm echoes the idea of peace represented in the words of the prophet Micah:

but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. Micah 4:4

It sharply contrasts with the judgment on Cain in Genesis 4:

And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.” Genesis 4: 11-14

At a fundamental level what the scriptures consider wisdom is simple: fearing the LORD and walking in his ways. Following this path entrusts one’s life, one’s family, and one’s society into the hands of God. The faithful one’s throughout the Jewish and Christian story have entrusted God can care for their life, their family and the world around them.

[1] The Hebrew ‘asre is frequently an indicator of wisdom literature. We may not think of happy or blessed in this way, but for Hebrew writers this is a common word when talking about the path of wisdom. Wisdom writers can interchange the idea of happiness and wisdom, see for example the way Psalm 110:10; Proverbs 1:7; 9:10 can pair wisdom with the fear of the LORD. Walter Brueggemann and William Bellinger, Jr. say of ‘asre, “The term introduces an observation about living: one who walks or lives in ways in line with YHWH’s purposes find wholeness. (Bellinger, 2014, p. 545)

[2] Hebrew gibbor which can refer to physical strength or the economic strength to equip oneself and a group for combat. Ruth 4:11 uses this term for economic ability in reference to Boaz.

Psalm 127 The Wisdom of Trusting the LORD

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Nocks on a group of Arrows. Image by By Samuraiantiqueworld – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15357007

Psalm 127

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon.

 1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
  those who build it labor in vain.
 Unless the LORD guards the city,
  the guard keeps watch in vain.
 2 It is in vain that you rise up early
  and go late to rest,
 eating the bread of anxious toil,
  for he gives sleep to his beloved.

 3 Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD,
  the fruit of the womb a reward.
 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
  are the sons of one’s youth.
 5 Happy is the man who has
  his quiver full of them.
 He shall not be put to shame
  when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Bolded words have notes on translation below.

Psalm 127 rotates around the basic claim that everything comes from the trustworthy LORD who builds the house, guards the city, and gives the blessing of family. The opening verse introduces the word translated in the NRSVue ‘house’ (Hebrew bayit) which can be used in multiple ways. Nancy deClaissé-Walford illustrates the multiple ways Hebrew uses bayit:

The word house (bayit) has a number of meanings in the Hebrew Bible. It can refer to family dwellings (Gen. 19:2; Judg. 11:31; 2 Kgs. 4:2); to the whole household (Gen. 46:27; Josh. 7:18; Ruth 1:8); to the whole people of Israel (Exod. 40:38; 1 Kgs. 20:31; Ezek. 36:22); to ruling dynasties (2 Sam. 3:1; 7:11; 1 Kgs. 16:3); or to the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kgs. 22:3; Ezra 6:15; Jer. 7:2). (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 918)

Critical to the wordplay in this Psalm is the usage of the term in Nathan’s prophecy to David in 2 Samuel 7: 11-13

The LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house (bayit). When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house (bayit) for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

While the building of a family dwelling or a temple would also be a labor committed to the LORD and the word allows and encourages those meanings, the psalm also wants us to understand the resonance of household, especially when linked thematically and phonetically to the second half of the psalm (see below).

The LORD is the primary actor throughout the psalm as the builder of the house and the guard of the city and the provider of children while the psalmist lives in trust of the LORD. They may participate with God in the building of the house, the protection of the city, and the procreation and raising of a family, but they can trust that the LORD provides that which they need. Instead of anxious toil trying to secure their house, city, and family they can sleep in peace entrusting the LORD to provide that which they need. I am reminded of Martin Luther’s explanation of the petition of the Lord’s prayer on daily bread:

What is this?

In fact, God gives daily bread without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we ask in this prayer that God cause us to recognize what our daily bread is and to receive it with thanksgiving.

What then does “daily bread” mean?

Everything our bodies need such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright spouse, upright children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like. (Luther, 1978, p. 36)

Wisdom is trusting the LORD to provide for the house and the security of the city so that the faithful one can be free from anxiety and worry. The psalmist understands cooperating with God but the idea of securing their own future by working harder or longer is foolishness. For the psalmist God provides for the home, the community, and the family.

As briefly mentioned above there is a phonetic connection between the verses in Hebrew that is not present in English. Nancy deClaissé-Walford is again helpful in showing this:

The word translated here as children (NRSVue sons) is the Hebrew banim, whose acoustic similarity to the Hebrew word build (bana) and house (bayit) in v. 1, coupled with the polyvalent meaning of the word “house” in the Hebrew Bible, strongly connects the two stanzas of Psalm 127. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 918)

The word ‘reward’ (Hebrew sakar) also appears in Genesis 15 when God tells Abram, “your reward (sakar) shall be very great. Within this promise Abram is told to look to the heavens and count the stars…so shall his dependents be. This psalm echoes the story of Abram/Abraham when multiple sons/children are viewed as a ‘reward.’ ‘Warrior’ and ‘man’ in verses four and five are the Hebrew gibbor and its alternate form geber which is an important term often translated “mighty one”[1] which can refer to either military or economic power. Finally, the word ‘happy’ (Hebrew ‘asre) is a term frequently used in wisdom literature. This wise ‘mighty one’ whose house the LORD has built, whose city the LORD has guarded, and whose family has produced many children as a reward from God can live at peace and content because they have trusted in the LORD. The LORD who builds their household, guards them and provides for their family will not allow their enemies to put them to shame.

[1] Hebrew gibbor hehayil which can refer to physical strength or the economic strength to equip oneself and a group for combat. Ruth 4:11 uses this term for economic ability in reference to Boaz.

Review of Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation by Miroslav Volf

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Review of Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation (1996) by Miroslav Volf.

This is the volume that introduced me to the work of Miroslav Volf and from the first page of the preface, where he lays out what is at stake in this theological exploration, through the final chapter on Violence and Peace it is a passionate and articulate formulation of a theology of the cross for our time. Volf is both honest about the challenges of reconciliation while holding before the reader the dream and hope of embrace as the end for which we are called to work. He powerfully weaves together theology, scripture, philosophy, and personal experience into a work that I have gone back to multiple times in my own ministry. Re-reading this work over twenty years after my initial reading Exclusion and Embrace is still a powerful work, but it also highlights my own evolution as a reader and scholar in the years between readings.

I first saw Exclusion and Embrace at the bookstore at Wartburg Seminary, and I felt drawn to it. I integrated it into an independent study attempting to flesh out Luther’s theology of the cross for our time in my senior year of seminary. At that point I was a young scholar reading everything I could get my hands on, and Volf’s work combined a deeply personal search for a Christian practice that was authentic with an academic rigor that was inspiring. This was the type of scholar I hoped to be. I was still attempting to integrate the diverse voices I had encountered in the previous two years of seminary into something that I could carry beyond the seminary walls. I was still wrestling with postmodernism as a way of thinking, knowing enough to be attracted and repelled by this alien way of encountering the world I was introduced to tangentially (although rarely under the name postmodernism) in academics. In Volf I found someone who was far more versed in authors like Nietzsche, Foucault, Deleuze, Said, and many other authors from a variety of perspectives who still took the scriptures, theology, and Christian practice seriously.

One of the major differences between my original and this reading is I have engaged enough with postmodern, feminist, and other voices to have developed my own perspective. I understand the influence of postmodern voices and perspectives, but in my own journey I have walked away from these perspectives because at their root I find them nihilistic. They serve as good critiques which fail to provide a viable alternative to the modernity they critique. Exclusion and Embrace is still an incredibly valuable work, but I found the central chapters speaking to dialogue partners who have little interest in a constructive dialogue with Christianity. I still believe the first two chapters and final chapter are incredibly important and make this a book that deserves wide reading. These are the places I have found myself referencing over the past twenty years and have caused me to read most of what Volf has written before and after Exclusion and Embrace.

One of the things I am most thankful for in Volf’s work is the way he bridges the divide between the academic world and the world which the academy often neglects. Like the three cities which form the concrete background of the reflection of the initial chapter (Los Angeles where Volf taught at the time, Berlin where he was giving the presentation that formed the chapter, and Sarajevo the war torn city from the land of Volf’s background as a Croatian) this is deals with the broken stories in need of forgiveness. Volf’s critique of the “pleasant captivities of the liberal mind” when he critiques the ‘God of perfect non-coercive love’ (Volf, 1996, p. 304) has stuck with me for the life of my ministry and resonates with my engagement with scriptures. This is a work that helped form my theology and gave me tools that would help me continue to grow as a pastor who engaged the scriptures and the questions of the surrounding world.     

Catching Fire- A Poem for Pentecost

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holy-spirit-pentecost-wind

We stayed locked behind closed doors
Safe from the rest of the world
Wondering what the future held
Would things ever be the way they were?
Should we just give up? Return home
And pretend like our worlds had not changed
Get on the with the business of our normal lives
Or do we dare to dream of God’s kingdom?

Our Lord came down to the water
And fished us out, calling us from our lives
To journeys we hadn’t imagined
The kingdom was near, the blind saw, the deaf heard
The demons were cast out and the religious were afraid
We had no wealth, no security, but we had him
This man who pulsated with the presence of the living God
Who dared to dream, speak and enact God’s kingdom

Our Lord took us outside the world we knew
To the other side of the lake, to Samaria, and into the city
He touched the unclean, welcomed the sinners
Ate with the tax collectors, and called us all to follow
Building this kingdom of outcasts and unholy into something divine
He opened our eyes, our ears and our hearts
Sometimes we heard, sometimes we were still deaf
Sometimes we trusted, sometimes we failed
But we relied on his faithfulness, his trust
His vision of the kingdom of God drawn near

His vision of the kingdom of love met the hatred
Of men who had lost their dreams, of rulers trapped by fear
So they hung him on a tree, cursed before the world
And laid him in a tomb, killing the dream
Scattering his followers to the four winds
As we ran away in our fear and disillusionment
Hiding away behind locked doors
Fasting where once we feasted
Mourning the loss of the kingdom of God incarnate

But the dream didn’t die
Love overcame hatred; the bars of death were shattered
And with this one, this Jesus, resurrection became reality
We saw him, touched him, ate with him, were taught by him
Yet still we didn’t understand how dead could be not dead
How to overcome the scandal of the crucifixion
How to move beyond our fears and beyond the walls
Our fear keeps the insiders in and the outsiders as strangers
As we argue, debate and question the future of God’s kingdom

We stayed locked behind closed doors
Safe from the rest of the world
Wondering what the future held
Would things ever be the way they were?
Should we just give up? Return home
And pretend like our worlds had not changed
Get on the with the business of our normal lives
Or do we dare to dream of God’s kingdom?

Light and life, wind and fire, tongues and messages
The same Spirit that drove Jesus into the wilderness
The same Spirit that went forth from him to heal the sick
Cast out the demons, open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf
Comes down and casts us outside
No longer behind closed doors, no longer trapped in fear
No longer caught in the illusion of our own control
No longer fearing death or persecution
But caught up in the moment, catching fire
Not knowing what the future holds
But captured by the pulsating power of God’s presence
That we are not alone, that we go forth in love
Witnesses to the kingdom of God

Our problems are not gone, they are new
As we are cast out by the Spirit into God’s world
We meet the outsiders, the gentiles, the strangers
The sinners, the broken, the hurt and the healing
We see the way God’s kingdom is at work in them
And it changes us, it rekindles our own flames
Stoking the fire of the Spirit that breaks down the walls of our fear
Proclaiming the arrival of the kingdom of God

In an age of fear we are captured by the creating Spirit
In the face of hatred and prejudice we are called to love
In insecurity we bring a dream of a world renewed
Yet at times our own fires grow dim
We find ourselves locked behind our own doors
Trapped within our cathedrals
Fearing the outsiders, the strangers and even our neighbors
Then may that same Spirit that moved the frightened few
Into the marketplace, the workplace and to the ends of the earth
Open our eyes, our ears and our hearts to the work of God in our midst
Pushing us towards the kingdom of God

Neil White, 2013

In part this was sparked by David Lose’s video “it’s Pentecost” 

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The Place of Authority 3-2:Byzantium, Triangles and the Quest for Stasis

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As a symbol and expression of the universal prestige of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Justinian built the Church of the Holy Wisdom of God, Hagia Sophia, which was completed in the short period of four and a half years (532–537).

One of the things I’ve been doing as I took an extended break from my more historical work on the place of authority within society and religion was to do some broader thinking about where this all might be heading and to try to bring in some other disciplines that could help me process the large historical stories in a way that both made sense and was as fair as possible to the historical narrative. I’m going to take you on a brief journey into the sometimes scary process of how my mind thinks through things (clearing away as much of the clutter as possible) and hopefully you will be able to see why I am drawing some of the conclusions I am at this point and as I move forward and then I will apply the scheme I develop to the period of the Byzantine empire (what remains of the former Roman empire after Rome collapses based out of Constantinople) and then we shall see how far I move forward in history before I feel the need to re-evaluate.

One thing that every society seeks is stability, instability is notoriously bad (at least in the short term) for the people in any society and people will endure a lot of things to avoid a drastic upheaval of what is considered normal. That got me thinking about Bowen System Theory and specifically his (and other’s who followed Murray Bowen’s work from the 1970s on) work on triangles:

“The theory states that the triangle, a three person emotional configuration, is the molecule or the basic building block of any emotional system, whether it is in the family or any other group. The triangle is the smallest stable relationship system. A two-person system may be stable as long as it is calm, but when anxiety increases, it immediately involves the most vulnerable other person to become a triangle. When tension in the triangle is too great for the threesome, it involves others to become a series of interlocking triangles”[i]

If any place in this time period could be talked about as stable and able to resist major changes it was the Byzantine empire and the Orthodox Church which was the dominant expression of religion within the empire. Thinking about what a triangular system might look like from the Byzantine perspective might look like took me back to another three fold characterization.

There is an ancient way of talking about Jesus which is called the three-fold office, which goes back into the ancient church, at least to the early church father Eusebius (263-339) and probably earlier than that. It breaks down the offices of Jesus as: prophet, priest and king- and as I mentioned in an earlier post for the early followers of Jesus he occupied the central defining role in forming their identity as Christians. Let me expand each of these roles briefly:

The kingly role is the role of political power, to those familiar with a Lutheran two kingdom way of thinking this is the left handed kingdom which deals with military power and security, taxes and wealth, roads and trade. Typically in every layer of society there is someone who occupies a place of political power and who guarantees safety, peace and security for the price of obedience and taxes. This is the role of the secular power, and it can be abusive or benevolent (although it more often trends towards abusive) and it often depends on the next office for it’s authorization in some manner.

The priestly role is the role of religious authority, this would be the right hand kingdom of Lutheran two kingdom typology, which deals with placing people in a right relationship with the sacred, whatever that may mean for a society. In almost every society that I am aware of the priestly function is carried out by those who are closely aligned with those in the kingly role. In a theocracy the priestly office will dominate the political office, this is less common but there are societies and times where the priestly office will hold sway. More commonly the political office will exercise greater power than the priestly office and the priestly office will give additional legitimacy to the political office. This may sound skeptical and there is give and take in the relationship, however for stability there is a mutual self interest involved since the political office protects the priestly office and the priestly office legitimizes the political office.

The prophetic role is that place, person or thing within a society which places a check on the political and the priestly offices when they are not acting in accordance to whichever divine source of authority , they are the mouthpiece of God that challenges the excesses, abuses, deceptions, oppression, idolatry or hubris of the other two offices. The prophetic role may be occupied by a person or persons or it may be an idea, book, etc…as we will see in some of the upcoming transitions. All three roles are necessary and linked together.

In the Byzantine empire the emperor remained the dominant political figure, and had a lot of authority within all realms of both political and religious authority. The bishops had and exercised their authority with the protection and in cooperation with the emperor, but for the Orthodox church and the Byzantine empire the prophetic role was occupied by tradition. Tradition was what the church had believed and confessed, hence orthodoxy, and anything that deviated from that tradition of the earlier church fathers and councils was considered heresy or at least unorthodox. After the reign of Theodosious I (379-395 CE) the eastern half of the empire based in Constantinople would remain in some form with the emperor reigning and the Orthodox church intact until Constantinople falls in 1453.

In Gruene, Texas there is a dancehall which proudly proclaims “Gently resisting change since 1872” and in many ways the Byzantine empire was able to gently resist significant changes for 1,000 years. The world around its borders changed and went through a number of upheavals and eventually it would find itself caught between the Catholics on one side and the Muslims on the other, and yet the emperor, orthodox priests and the tradition of the fathers provided stability while the world around them was filled with chaos.

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[i] Murray Bowen, 1976 quoted in Roberta M. Gilbert, The Eight Concepts of Bowen Theory: A New Way of Thinking About the Individual and The Group, Falls Church and Basye, Virginia: Leading Systems Press, 2004 and 2006, 47.

The Place of Authority 2-6: The Constantinian Revolution Part 2-Councils, Canons and Creeds

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Icon of the Council of Nicea

I mentioned in an early post (see the Place of Authority 2-3) that Christianity came into contact with the Greek culture and even though Christianity attempted to remain true to its Jewish roots, the questions and the terms of the dialogue were set by the Greek culture. The arguments and theology of early church leaders like Justin, Clement of Alexandria and Origen had conducted the debate with the surrounding culture in terms the culture was familiar with. Especially in the Eastern (Greek speaking) half of the church there was an emerging conflict between the philosophical ideas of what God should be like and various readings of Scripture. Remember that almost all of the early Christian leaders read the scriptures allegorically, and just as there are multiple ways of reading scripture today the early church had this struggle with this as well.

In 325 CE Emperor Constantine called the leaders of the early church together at Nicea, a city in modern day Turkey near Constantinople (Istanbul). Many of the issues dealt with were practical, having to do with which leaders and position would carry the greatest authority, how to readmit lapsed Christians, and how to elects individuals to fill the various leadership roles within the church. These were all essential tasks for an organization which had moved from being decentralized and rather small to a much more organized and broad church. It was within this meeting that some of the theological differences present came to the surface and had to be dealt with.

The controversy is named Arianism for a presbyter named Arius who found himself in conflict with the bishop of Alexandria (appropriately named Alexander) over the relation of Jesus and the Father. At the council of Nicea an Alexandrian controversy became a controversy that consumed the first council when a few convinced Arians, led by Eusebius of Nicomedia attempted to have the assembly rebuke Alexander for his condemnation of Arius’ teachings. At stake was whether the person of the Christ was divine with the Father or whether he was a created creature. Originally the assembly wanted to create a confession stringing together biblical texts, but they found it difficult to unmistakably refute Arianism using only scripture, but would eventually create a creed heavily dependent on a mixture of biblical and philosophical language to reject Arianism. This would be the beginning of the Nicene Creed (the Nicene Creed we use today would effectively be finished at the council of Constantinople in 381 CE but the first two paragraphs come from the Council of Nicea). This is the language agreed on in Nicea about Christ:

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, that is, from the substance of the Father, God of God, light of light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, of one substance (homoousios) with the Father, through whom all things were made, both in heaven and on earth, who for us humans and for our salvation descended and became incarnate, becoming human, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and will come to judge the living and the dead.

The controversy was all about the person of Christ, and I find it interesting that the controversy stays there throughout this period and never moves to consider the work or the teaching of Christ. This creed, begun in a council called and presided over by an emperor not yet baptized, would be the one statement of faith that would be agreed upon by the Western and Eastern Church and would at a later point be a part of the controversy that would split the two, but that is a later story.

Even though the canon was not fixed at the Council of Nicea, as many people believe, the canon had taken the decisive shape by this point. Revelation and Hebrews would eventually gain enough acceptance to be viewed by most as a part of the New Testament. Yet the gospels and the letters of the New Testament began to be used more as a tool for theological ideas rather than understood in their own right. Christianity, like its predecessor Judaism, was moving on its own temple and monarchy trajectory-except now the temple was the church and the monarch was the Roman Emperor. Creeds would begin to become more influential than story, councils would become the interpreter of scriptures and although with the translation of the Bible in to Latin by Jerome made it available in the language of the Western half of the empire both illiteracy and the unavailability of copies of the scriptures in either the Greek or Latin would make the authority rest with the educated elite of both the ruling and clerical class.

There is certainly much to criticize about this era of Christianity’s struggle with authority from many people’s standpoints, especially as we find ourselves coming into a post-Christendom era (according to many commentators) but there is also much to admire. This was a time of theological giants: Athanasius, Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus), John Chrysostom, Jerome, Ambrose and perhaps the greatest of this group (from a Western Church perspective) Ambrose’s student Augustine of Hippo. The shape of the church in both the West and the East would be shaped for the next 1,000 years during this era. At the beginning of the fifth century the political climate would change as Rome’s loses its position as the sole imperial authority and we enter what is commonly called the Medieval Era. Much will be lost in the coming era, but the church will be the authority that many look to in the midst of the crisis Christianity will continue to spread throughout Europe, although in the Middle East and Africa a new player will emerge on the scene. It is to this era we will turn next.

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