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The Book of Jonah, perhaps the most popular among the Minor Prophets, turns the world of its audience upside down. In four short chapters, it leaves its readers hanging between a series of binary oppositions. Over the years, the interpretation of Jonah has evolved from rebellious to virtuous and back, with a character searching for a place in the story world, a text challenging the genre and practice of prophecy, and a story with afterlives in different religious traditions. More recently, scholarship on the book has been flooded with ecological concerns, swamped by emotional readings, and held against the postcolonial light. Despite its comprehensible size, Jonah’s outlook still remains ambivalent and ambiguous. This volume engages with this unruliness in a timely manner.

This volume will be first published online and then as a print book. Chapter 1 published 2024.
Table of Contents (titles not final)
1. Words Hurled Upon the Sea: Scribal Culture and the Role of Writing in the Book of Jonah – Amy Erickson
2. Jonah and Prophecy – Klaas Spronk
3. Jonah and Ritual – Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme
4. Jonah and Ancient Near Eastern Social Values – Jo-Marí Schäder
5. Jonah and the Performative – Steven Mann
6. Language and Identity in Jonah – Robert Holmstedt
7. Jonah and the Book of the Twelve – tba
8. Rolling in the Deep: Literary Layers and Textual Art in the Book of Jonah – Rhiannon Graybill, Steven McKenzie, and John Kaltner
9. Jonah and Aesthetics – tba
10. Irony and Humor in Jonah – Karolien Vermeulen
11. Jonah and Nonhuman Animals – Suzanna Millar
12. The Human-Divine Relationship in Jonah – Aron Tillema
13. Jonah and Ecology, Ecotheology, and Environmental Science – Alexander Abasili
14. Spatiality and Directionality in Jonah – Gert Prinsloo
15. Jonah, Travel and Mobility – Anat Shapiro
16. Jonah in the Arts – tba
17. Jonah and the New Testament – tba

Published: Jan 15, 2026

Book Contributors

• Editor - Karolien Vermeulen ([email protected] - kvermeulen) 'University of Antwerp'
• Author - Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme ([email protected] - agudme3630) 'University of Oslo'
• Author - Alexander Izuchukwu Abasili ([email protected] - alexaabasili)
• Author - Amy Erickson ([email protected] - aerickson) 'Iliff School of Theology'
• Author - Klaas Spronk ([email protected] - kspronk) 'Protestant Theological University'
• Author - Jo-Marí Schäder ([email protected] - jmschader) 'University of Pretoria'
• Author - Steven Mann ([email protected] - stevenmann) 'Azusa Pacific University'
• Author - Robert Holmstedt ([email protected] - rholmstedt) 'University of Toronto'
• Author - Rhiannon Graybill ([email protected] - crgraybill) 'University of Richmond'
• Author - Steven McKenzie ([email protected] - smckenzie) 'Rhodes College'
• Author - John Kaltner ([email protected] - jkaltner) 'Rhodes College'
• Author - Suzanna R. Millar ([email protected] - srmillar) 'University of Edinburgh'
• Author - Aron Tillema ([email protected] - atillema) 'University of California, Davis'
• Author - Gert Prinsloo ([email protected] - gprinsloo) 'University of Pretoria'
• Author - Anat Shapiro ([email protected] - anatshapiro) 'Aarhus University'

Series

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Section	Chapter	Authors
Chapter 1
	Words Hurled Upon the Sea: Scribal Culture and the Role of Writing in the Book of Jonah	Amy Erickson