The Letter of James as nativist discourse: Confronting Roman imperialism and Pauline hybridity

This dissertation reads the Letter of James as nativist discourse that simultaneously confronts the Roman Empire and Pauline hybridity. Using the work of decolonizing scholars such as Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, and Ngugu wa Thiong'o as lens, I argue that the central themes of purity and perfection that permeate the Letter of James function as nativist identity construction. In the process of constructing a pious identity characterized by purity and perfection, James refutes Roman cultural practices such as the patronage system and exploitative economic practices that threaten the authentic identity of James's recipients. At the same time, those who would transgress the boundaries between purity/God and impurity/world are condemned by James as "whores," "sinners," and "two-faced," that is, hybrids.;I follow traditional historical-critical scholarship and argue for an early date for the Letter and authentic authorship. Using postcolonial analysis, I then show how James, the leader of the Jesus movement in Jerusalem, systematically confronts Pauline hybridity. I understand both of these competing leaders arguing within the realm of first century Judeanness while negotiating identity in relation to the Roman Empire. Paul's capacity to interchange his nested identities based on his circumstances puts him at odds with James's purist/nativist notions of identity. Both are negotiating Judean identity but in competing and oppositional ways.;The first part of the dissertation focuses on James 1, and how that chapter constructs a center/periphery binary between James in Jerusalem and his recipients in the diaspora. This binary decenters Rome and calls the diaspora to their home, that is, the Empire of God. The second part of the dissertation focuses on James's anti-imperial rhetoric in 2:1-13, 3:13-18, and 5:1-6; and James's anti-hybrid rhetoric in 2:14-26, 3:1-12, 4:1-10, and 4:11-17. Reading the Letter of James through the lens of postcolonial studies and decolonization offers a unique contribution to Jamesian studies by focusing on issues of empire, power, and hybridity.