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James, the Apostle of Faith: A Primary Christological Epistle for the Persecuted Church
The epistle of James is often poorly understood. Beyond questions of authorship and dating, its contents are troubling. Its powerful accusations of sin seem to overshadow the Gospel. For this reason Luther called it an epistle of straw and questioned whether it should be in the Bible at all. Author David Scaer thinks differently, and he shares his insights with us in 'James, the Apostle of Faith' As the title indicates, faith in Christ and the comforting Gospel are prominent in many places throughout this epistle. Far from being a dreary series of moralisms, James is filled with references to the atonement, faith, and forgiveness - the sublime Gospel themes of the New Testament. Particularly revealing are many parallels between the Epistle of James and the Gospel of Matthew, especially the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus' agricultural parables. In this study of James, Dr. Scaer makes exciting discoveries, some of which will surprise you. You may not agree with everything he says, but your thinking will certainly be stimulated. Dr. Paul Maier, Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University and author of several best-selling studies of the New Testament, provides a most interesting and informative Foreword, giving valuable historical background about James, the brother of our Lord, and the times in which he lived.
158 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1983
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About the author
David P. Scaer
42 books24 followersDr. David Scaer is a professor of Systematic Theology and New Testament and holder of the David P. Scaer Chair of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN. At the seminary since 1966 he serves as editor of the Concordia Theological Quarterly (1969-1994; 1999- ) and was academic dean (1984-1989). He is currently chairman of his department. Dr. Scaer has written extensively and his articles have appeared in Christianity Today, Lutheran Forum, Logia, Forum Letter, the Lutheran Witness, Modern Reformation, Cresset, the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Grace Theological Journal and Issues in Christian Education. His Christology (1990) was the first volume to appear in the Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics, and is in its fourth printing. A second volume in this series, Baptism, has been published by the Lutheran Academy. For the same series he is also authoring the volumes of Law and Gospel and the Sacraments. Twice he was awarded the prestigious John W. Behnken Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award by AAL for study in Europe (1969,1986).
A parish pastor serving congregations in Gillespie, Illinois and Rockville, Connecticut, he also taught for ten years as a part time instructor in religion at the University of Illinois (Champaign) (1966-1976). He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, the Alliance of Confessional Evangelicals and the Christianity Today Institute, for which periodical he also serves as a research scholar. Dr Scaer was a member of the composing committee for "Evangelical Affirmations 1989" and a contributor of essays published for the May meeting (1990). He is listed as a contributing editor for Logia and Modern Reformation. His Latin Ecclesiastical Glossary , a dictionary of Latin terms for Lutheran seminary students, is regularly used with Pieper's Christian Dogmatics. Professor Scaer's interest in New Testament studies is shown in his James: The Apostle of Faith (Concordia Publishing House) which demonstrated this epistle's close connection to the preaching of Jesus and its basic unity with the Pauline epistles. His interest for some time has been in the area of Gospels and their order and interdependency.
His Sermon on the Mount was published by Concordia Publishing House. He has written in the area of the Lutheran Confessions and co-edited a volume in honor of the 450th anniversary of the Small Catechism, Luther's Catechisms - 450 Years (1979) and contributed to a volume honoring the 400th anniversary of the Book of Concord, Getting into the Story of Concord (1977). His articles have appeared in the Concordia Theological Quarterly, the Concordia Journal, Christianity Today, Affirm, Lutheran Witness, Lutheran Forum, Theology Today and Philosophy and Theology. He is a contributor to Contemporary Theology, The Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics, and The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Among his other books are What Do You Think of Jesus?, The Apostolic Scriptures, and The Lutheran World Federation Today. Along with eighteen other recognized theologians, he is a contributor to Doing Theology in Today's World, a festschrift in honor Kenneth Kantzer, one time editor of Christianity Today. His contribution is entitled "How do Lutheran Theologians Approach the 'Doing of Theology Today.' " He has written two essays analyzing the theology of Dr. Francis Pieper. The first appeared in Baker's Handbook of Evangelical Theologians and the second in The Pieper Lectures: The Office of the Ministry, published by the Concordia Historical Institute.
He has served as the organizer of the annual on-campus Symposium on the Lutheran Confessions since 1978. His essays have also appeared in festschrifts for Professor Kurt Marquart, Dr. Charles Manske, Dr. Glen Zweck and Bishop Jobst Schoene. In 1999 his "The Doctrine of the Sacraments in the Theology of Johann Gerhard," appeared in Protestant Scholasticism.: Essays in Reassessm
A parish pastor serving congregations in Gillespie, Illinois and Rockville, Connecticut, he also taught for ten years as a part time instructor in religion at the University of Illinois (Champaign) (1966-1976). He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Institute for Biblical Research, the Alliance of Confessional Evangelicals and the Christianity Today Institute, for which periodical he also serves as a research scholar. Dr Scaer was a member of the composing committee for "Evangelical Affirmations 1989" and a contributor of essays published for the May meeting (1990). He is listed as a contributing editor for Logia and Modern Reformation. His Latin Ecclesiastical Glossary , a dictionary of Latin terms for Lutheran seminary students, is regularly used with Pieper's Christian Dogmatics. Professor Scaer's interest in New Testament studies is shown in his James: The Apostle of Faith (Concordia Publishing House) which demonstrated this epistle's close connection to the preaching of Jesus and its basic unity with the Pauline epistles. His interest for some time has been in the area of Gospels and their order and interdependency.
His Sermon on the Mount was published by Concordia Publishing House. He has written in the area of the Lutheran Confessions and co-edited a volume in honor of the 450th anniversary of the Small Catechism, Luther's Catechisms - 450 Years (1979) and contributed to a volume honoring the 400th anniversary of the Book of Concord, Getting into the Story of Concord (1977). His articles have appeared in the Concordia Theological Quarterly, the Concordia Journal, Christianity Today, Affirm, Lutheran Witness, Lutheran Forum, Theology Today and Philosophy and Theology. He is a contributor to Contemporary Theology, The Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics, and The Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Among his other books are What Do You Think of Jesus?, The Apostolic Scriptures, and The Lutheran World Federation Today. Along with eighteen other recognized theologians, he is a contributor to Doing Theology in Today's World, a festschrift in honor Kenneth Kantzer, one time editor of Christianity Today. His contribution is entitled "How do Lutheran Theologians Approach the 'Doing of Theology Today.' " He has written two essays analyzing the theology of Dr. Francis Pieper. The first appeared in Baker's Handbook of Evangelical Theologians and the second in The Pieper Lectures: The Office of the Ministry, published by the Concordia Historical Institute.
He has served as the organizer of the annual on-campus Symposium on the Lutheran Confessions since 1978. His essays have also appeared in festschrifts for Professor Kurt Marquart, Dr. Charles Manske, Dr. Glen Zweck and Bishop Jobst Schoene. In 1999 his "The Doctrine of the Sacraments in the Theology of Johann Gerhard," appeared in Protestant Scholasticism.: Essays in Reassessm
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 29, 2025
Much better the second time around. Scaer argues that James is a pastoral epistle, and that threw me off the first time around because I wasn’t convinced by his arguments. Today, I can’t imagine reading it any other way. There’s no way that James would be writing his letter to anyone in the church /i/but/i/ pastors.
With Scaer, I believe James was written around the mid-'40s. This means that the church is one where the main body used to live in Jerusalem, but has scattered to the surrounding towns under persecution. This in turn means that James is writing to men he knows personally. These would be men who were part of the church leadership. Although the deacons of Acts 6 worked among the people, it seems that James and his inner circle were insulated from the laypeople (as demonstrated by their naiveté in Acts 21:23-25).
Therefore the book of James is a pastoral epistle (written to pastors) with catholic epistle flavor (its teaching is for the whole church). Remember, while Paul often wrote to churches as a whole or with specific laypeople in mind, it's because he knew them personally or because he was writing a general letter. James, on the other hand, is writing a letter to encourage his fellow workers, who are all themselves leading churches.
This explains the difficulty I had reading this book the first time around: if you read James’ epistle trying to figure out who the audience is, you’re going to find some sections that read like they’re written to pastors, and others that read like they’re written to the church more broadly. This is because it's all written to pastors, but it’s all about life in the real-life church.
If Scaer had explained that better, this book would be so much more accessible. But once that clicks, his exegesis is very well done.
With Scaer, I believe James was written around the mid-'40s. This means that the church is one where the main body used to live in Jerusalem, but has scattered to the surrounding towns under persecution. This in turn means that James is writing to men he knows personally. These would be men who were part of the church leadership. Although the deacons of Acts 6 worked among the people, it seems that James and his inner circle were insulated from the laypeople (as demonstrated by their naiveté in Acts 21:23-25).
Therefore the book of James is a pastoral epistle (written to pastors) with catholic epistle flavor (its teaching is for the whole church). Remember, while Paul often wrote to churches as a whole or with specific laypeople in mind, it's because he knew them personally or because he was writing a general letter. James, on the other hand, is writing a letter to encourage his fellow workers, who are all themselves leading churches.
This explains the difficulty I had reading this book the first time around: if you read James’ epistle trying to figure out who the audience is, you’re going to find some sections that read like they’re written to pastors, and others that read like they’re written to the church more broadly. This is because it's all written to pastors, but it’s all about life in the real-life church.
If Scaer had explained that better, this book would be so much more accessible. But once that clicks, his exegesis is very well done.
October 11, 2014
Pros:
- The author provides some very helpful historical background for the epistle of James, as well as connections between the epistle of James and the Gospel of Matthew--both of which were written about the same time.
- The author does an excellent job refuting the claims that the epistle of James is moralistic, focused on the Law, and promotes justification by faith and works. He gives an excellent response to Luther's unfavorable preface to the epistle from 1522. He also does an excellent job explaining James 2 and how James and Paul come from the same position on justification, but are addressing different issues.
- The author provides interesting comments worthy of further study on how portions of this book may have been addressed to those serving as shepherds of God's people.
Cons:
- The basis for this commentary is not so much that it's an early Christological epistle, but that it's a pastoral epistle. While arguments could be made that certain sections could be addressed to the shepherds of God's people, the author time and again seems to try too hard to read his own presuppostions on the doctrine of the ministry into the epistle of James. This impacts his hermeneutical approach for most of the commentary to the point that after a couple chapters, the reader can predict where the author will be going. Rather than focus on doing a thorough exegesis of the simple, literal interpretation of the text, Scaer's approach throughout the commentary is more "eisegesis" or an attempt to read his own views on church and ministry into the text while trying to use scattered passages from other books to support his view. This hermeneutical approach was the biggest negative for me.
- At times, it seemed like in his attempt to defend James as a Christological and pastoral epistle, Scaer was almost anti-Pauline. While I don't think that was his intention, it does seem to come across that way on occasion.
All in all, this is a fair commentary on James. Perhaps the Concordia Commentary on James will prove to be the solid Lutheran commentary on the book that this reviewer would've preferred to read.
- The author provides some very helpful historical background for the epistle of James, as well as connections between the epistle of James and the Gospel of Matthew--both of which were written about the same time.
- The author does an excellent job refuting the claims that the epistle of James is moralistic, focused on the Law, and promotes justification by faith and works. He gives an excellent response to Luther's unfavorable preface to the epistle from 1522. He also does an excellent job explaining James 2 and how James and Paul come from the same position on justification, but are addressing different issues.
- The author provides interesting comments worthy of further study on how portions of this book may have been addressed to those serving as shepherds of God's people.
Cons:
- The basis for this commentary is not so much that it's an early Christological epistle, but that it's a pastoral epistle. While arguments could be made that certain sections could be addressed to the shepherds of God's people, the author time and again seems to try too hard to read his own presuppostions on the doctrine of the ministry into the epistle of James. This impacts his hermeneutical approach for most of the commentary to the point that after a couple chapters, the reader can predict where the author will be going. Rather than focus on doing a thorough exegesis of the simple, literal interpretation of the text, Scaer's approach throughout the commentary is more "eisegesis" or an attempt to read his own views on church and ministry into the text while trying to use scattered passages from other books to support his view. This hermeneutical approach was the biggest negative for me.
- At times, it seemed like in his attempt to defend James as a Christological and pastoral epistle, Scaer was almost anti-Pauline. While I don't think that was his intention, it does seem to come across that way on occasion.
All in all, this is a fair commentary on James. Perhaps the Concordia Commentary on James will prove to be the solid Lutheran commentary on the book that this reviewer would've preferred to read.
August 5, 2020
I am certain that the lack of stars for my rating is my own deficiency, not that of the author. I struggled and fought my way through the book page by page and more often than not had to re-read and re-read again most of the paragraphs and pages. Theology is my favorite topic of study and this was an incredibly difficult read that has reminded me of the line that the Holy Scriptures are gentle enough for the smallest child to splash and play but deep enough to drown the largest elephant. I consider myself sufficiently in over my head with this work and will try again after I study James in other works.
July 21, 2025
Scaer’s brief commentary on the epistle of St. James is an apologetic for its place in the canon of Scripture and a defense against ill advised (and often taken out of context) comments by Luther. This sets James firmly in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, which gives a refreshing perspective on one of the earliest New Testament documents. Scaer also attempts to classify this as a pastoral epistle, which also makes this a very interesting read.
November 30, 2018
The title might be considered to be provocative to some. I know that I did not grow up thinking that James was a "Primary Christological Epistle". But Dr. Scaer made me see that it's true. After reading this book, you'll never be able to read James apart from Genesis 15:6 - "Abraham believed God and He counted it to him as righteousness". Well worth the read.
December 29, 2020
It took me a lot longer to finish this than I anticipated based on the page count, but it is an interesting read and offers a lot of convincing insights about the place of James, both his epistle’s role in the biblical canon and his own role as an apostle.
February 8, 2023
Whether you agree or disagree with Scaer his chief value to the Church is to engage the Scriptures and make you wrestle with them, make you think. He brings out Christ where you might not have seen him. He is a true treasure.
July 11, 2025
Really good commentary that presents solid evidence that James is an authentic letter of Jesus' younger blood brother who was known to hold an authoritative position in the Jerusalem church after the resurrection, and that the letter is perhaps the earliest NT writing.
August 31, 2021
Helpful and useful for the study of James.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews