Do James and Paul Contradict Each Other?

James said, “a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). Paul wrote, “one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom 3:24). Do Paul and James contradict each other?  Some modern scholars have made that argument. But do James and Paul really contradict each other?  I don’t believe so.  Instead, James and Paul complement each other. They use the word justify in different contexts to communicate different ideas.  Christians have intuited how words and the ideas they communicate vary according to context from the beginning. For example, Clement of Rome in about...