Jonah with Rev. Dr. Vanessa Lovelace

Rev. Dr. Vanessa Lovelace (Lancaster Theological Seminary) guides us through the Book of Jonah. We discuss:

* What we can know about Jonah’s historical context

* Major themes in Jonah including repentance and forgiveness

* God relenting from judging Nineveh in Jonah compared to God judging Nineveh in Nahum

* Jonah as the anti-prophet

* If Jonah is meant to be taken as a universal or particular message

* The fish/whale that swallows Jonah

* Different ways to understand Jonah disobeying God’s call to preach to Nineveh

* Jonah’s payer as insincere

* The repentance in Nineveh that includes the animals

* Understanding God turning from judging Nineveh, and Jonah’s response to God’s mercy

Works by Vanessa Lovelace 

* Womanist Interpretations of the Bible: Expanding the Discourse. Ed. with G. Byron. SBL Press, 2016.

* “Jonah.” In Oxford Handbook of the Minor Prophets. Ed. J. O’Brien. Oxford University Press, 2021: 449–460.

* Outsider-Within: A Womanist Reading of Hebrew Bible Narratives as the Politics of Belonging, forthcoming 2024.

Vanessa Lovelace recommends

* Womanist Interpretations of the Bible: Expanding the Discourse. Ed. G. Byron and Vanessa Lovelace. SBL Press, 2016.

* Wilda Gafney, Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne. Westminster John Knox, 2017.

* Nyasha Junior, An Introduction to Womanist Biblical Interpretation. Westminster John Knox, 2015.

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The Two Testaments takes you on a guided journey through Scripture with leading experts on the Bible, hosted by Rony Kozman and Will Kynes

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This episode is co-sponsored by Samford University and the Alabama Humanities Alliance, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this episode do not necessarily represent those of the Alabama Humanities Alliance, the National Endowment for the Humanities or Samford University.