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Key insights for the analysis of the epistle of James in this essay come from Shore's chapters on "Mind Games" and "Playing with Rules" (Shore 1996: 75-115). The basic concept is that humans create culture by making careful rules for establishing and violating boundaries. One of his most brilliant insights is that baseball exhibits a cultural model of the social relations of Americans to one another (Shore 1996: 75-100). A game is a framing of time, space, and action. His analysis shows that energetic, lawful, exciting, and timely violation of temporal and spatial boundaries is central to the game. My proposal is that Jesus himself and the "followers of Jesus" in subsequent years, decades, and centuries were and are engaged in making and remaking rules and rituals for private life, communal life, and public life. One of the results of this activity is the creation of Christian culture--in the mind, in intimate relationships, in cordial social environments, and in public life both congenial and hostile. Every culture has different kinds of games, and often people in these cultures understand some of the games better than others. Until a few decades ago, the major games in American culture were baseball, softball, basketball, football, volleyball, tennis, and golf. During more recent decades, hockey and soccer have become major games, and even lacrosse is occupying the time of many college students. Games from other cultures, then, regularly make inroads into the context of the traditional games in a culture. In addition to the different kinds of games, there often are local versions of games versus more national versions, and informal versions of games that people play on picnics or in schoolyards and more formal versions that take place on playing fields or professional arenas. Often there are activities that look similar from game to game, like throwing, hitting, kicking, or bouncing a ball. These similar activities regularly occur under different sets of rules and are rewarded, or penalized, in significantly different ways in different games. All the games have referees, and professional games regularly have head commissioners who oversee the activities of an entire "league" of teams who play the game. My suggestion is that first century Christianity contained many different games, with local versions and more widespread regional versions, as well as formal and informal versions. New Testament literature itself, I propose, shows us multiple versions in which people were participating. When we add literature outside the New Testament, we get even a fuller picture of the multiple games and versions of games in early Christianity. All of the games together comprise early Christian culture. By the end of the first century, some of the versions of the games were being sanctioned by certain leaders, and other versions were being censured. The internecine dialogue among people loyal to one game rather than another creates the environment we know today as early Christian culture. 3. Being an Abraham who Endures Tests in the Epistle of James The story of Abraham in Genesis 12-25 is the Israelite version of the Greco-Roman story of Heracles/Hercules and his many labors. The Abraham story also has many analogies to a person being "at bat" in American baseball. The goal of the person at bat is to get on base and successfully endure the trials that he or she encounters going from base to base. Abraham is called by God to leave home, go out into the world, and endure the tests that arise on the journey. The basic activity, then, is a journey of faith. Abraham understands that there will be many tests on the journey. He also understands that he must accept the call to undertake the venture. When Abraham successfully endures the tests, God blesses him in special ways (e.g., Gen. 25.35-36). The epistle of James presents a Christian version of this venture of faith, citing Abraham in James 2.21-24 as a person who successfully met the test. The conceptuality of the venture |