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List of contents
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgment
1. Commentary Flows
Forward flows
2. Flow into the Sea (Jonah 1:1–2:10)
3. Flow into Nineveh (Jonah 2:10–4:11)
Backward flows
4. Beasts That Mattered (Jonah 4:10–11)
5. A Bush That Moved (Jonah 4.1-9)
6. A City That Believed (Jonah 3:1–10)
7. A Fish That Vomited (Jonah 1.17-2.10)
8. A Boat That Thought (Jonah 1:4–16)
9. A Flight that Continues (Jonah 1:1–3)
A Postscript
References
Scriptural Characters Index
Scriptural Reference Index
About the author
Jione Havea is a native Methodist pastor from Tonga, a Research Fellow at Trinity Theological College, Aotearoa New Zealand, and an honorary researcher with the Public and Contextual Theology centre of Charles Sturt University, Australia.
Summary
Jione Havea analyses the Book of Jonah through the lens of climate change, using this present situation to reconsider the significance of Jonah for contemporary struggles and contexts, and tapping into traditional practices of commentary to draw out the meaning of the biblical text. Havea takes Jonah 3:10 as a starting point, in which God repents and rethinks (decides not to destroy), taking this as a challenge and an opportunity for biblical scholars to reflect on the realities of climate change.
Havea builds on this opportunity in two ways: first, by reading Jonah forward, giving special attention to the orientation of the narrative toward the sea and Nineveh, and then backward, highlighting the significance of sea and (is)land lives to the flow of the narrative. Second, by looking at the other figures in the narrative, rather than focusing on the narrator’s obsession with Jonah and his God. Havea reminds readers that the fish, plant, worm and other beasts are also crucial in this narrative, and considers how this can change our reading of the text.
Foreword
An ecological reading of Jonah with particular focus on the sea, the land (island) and the beasts in the biblical story and how they interact with God and his decision to repent in Jonah 3:10.
Additional text
I cannot image a more effective ecological commentary on the book of Jonah than that which Jione Havea has produced. Himself a prophet and poet, he powerfully fuses ecological and contextual hermeneutics, and his eco-contextual reading strategy opens up the watery depths of this sea-borne biblical text in novel and revealing ways.
