Karl Möller, Jonah’s Story, Our Challenge: Reading a Biblical Narrative in Today’s Church and World
London: SCM Press, 2023
Jonah’s Story, Our Challenge introduces readers to the most inspiring readings of the book of Jonah from a range of angles, including historical, literary, and psychological ones. It specifically facilitates engagement with contextual, liberationist, and postcolonial readings that afford us fresh and often challenging perspectives from around the world. And it embraces ecological interpretation and its insights about Jonah, thus seeking to encourage ecological reading of the Bible more generally. The book is designed to let different and at times contradictory readings stand alongside each other, thus allowing for multiple voices to be heard. Questions interspersed throughout the text encourage further reflection and discussion of the range of interpretations showcased here, while seeking to tease out their implications for our engagement with the biblical text.
“This is an extraordinarily wide-ranging study of many possible ways of reading the book of Jonah, based on close knowledge of all the major types of biblical interpretation in use today – from now traditional ‘historical-critical’ approaches all the way to postcolonial and ecological readings. In the process, Karl Möller introduces the reader into the current scene in biblical studies in an attractive and approachable way. An ideal book for anyone beginning to study the Bible, but with much to teach even experienced readers who may be bewildered by the variety of methods now encountered, and who need a re-orientation. Jonah turns out to be an ideal text to try out various methods. Highly recommended!”
“This thoughtful and far-reaching book emphasises the inherent plasticity of the book of Jonah and reveals its interpretative richness and diversity. Möller challenges us to re-evaluate our own preconceived ideas of what the book of Jonah is all about and guides us towards a fuller appreciation of the multiple and often mutually contradictory interpretations of the book.”
“In this fascinating and well-written book, Möller speaks eloquently about the capacity of Jonah to reinvent itself over the centuries. … Möller presents the reader with some challenging reflections at every step of the way, from the theology of God presupposed by the text through to the way in which Jonah has been used to foster anti-Semitic stereotyping of Jews as ‘self-righteous, nationalistic and xenophobic’. … The section on committed readings builds on an interesting narrative analysis to encourage a reading of Jonah from the margins – those who are routinely excluded from the religious focus. … This book is intended as an introduction to the critical study of Jonah for undergraduates, and it should be a particularly valuable resource in that regard. Möller suggests that some church and Bible study groups might also want to use the book, although some of those groups might find the probing analysis more challenging and stretching than they are used to in a parochial setting. But this is an excellent introductory-level textbook for university students and much to be recommended.”
Alan Le Grys, in Theology 126/5 (2023), pp. 382-383
Contents
- Jonah’s Readers: Perspectives on Interpretation
- Jonah’s World: Historical and Social Science Perspectives
- Jonah’s Art and Reception: The Poetics of a Biblical Narrative
- Jonah’s Challenge: Contextual, Liberationist and Postcolonial Interpretation
- Jonah’s Depths: Psychological Biblical Criticism
- Jonah’s ‘Otherkind’: Ecological Readings