There is something ironic, too, about the fact that most self-described devout Christians I have kibitzed with down through the years have been quick to give lip service to either wanting to zero in on and follow the original faith of the apostles and disciples (70 elders), or else believed they’d found and were living it, yet did not realize that their beliefs and practices were in many instances diametrically opposite of those embraced, espoused and lived out by those who knew Jesus best and thus what he taught and practiced -- his own brothers including James the Just.
With this said, it must be conceded that a great deal of the historical, archeological and interpretive work that has fleshed out James’s role as first Mebakker/archbishop/overseer of the early “Jesus Movement” has come out in the past decade or two. But even so, one would expect – hope – to see some widespread, major shifts in the articulated beliefs and practices of many mainstream Christians. This does not seem to be the case though there does seem to be a greater move to “recover” the Jewish Jesus – that is, the very Orthodox Jewish nature of Jesus’ teachings, beliefs and practices.
Thankfully, clerics such as Lutheran minister Jeffrey J. Bϋtz and scholars such as Dr. James D. Tabor have made consensus findings about James and the early “Jesus Movement” known through their superb books such as Bϋtz’s The Brother of Jesus and the Lost Teachings of Christianity and Dr. Tabor’s The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity. Perhaps these books and those that will surely follow will see increasing numbers of Christians move beyond defective beliefs and creeds into the realm of a Torah-centric faith (Messianic God-fearers or its equivalent).