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Sympathy for Jonah: Reflections on Humiliation, Terror and the Politics of Enemy-Love
The story of Jonah is sacred to all three Abrahamic faiths and remains a recognizable legend even in the most secularized corners of the West. And yet the maritime prophet's story has been trivialized as a quaint children's tale, his character has been blasted by unsympathetic commentators, and even his alleged tomb has now been destroyed by Islamic State militants who, in 2014, took the city of Mosul on the Nineveh Plains. Now that Nineveh is once again in the grip of tyrannical violence and communities across the West and the Middle East are deep in a time of discord and soul-searching, we might do well to recover the story of Jonah, a guiding light, who marches into the very heart of empire and confronts it with the radical politics of the kingdom of God, even as his own certainties are shaken to the core.
- GenresLove
60 pages, Paperback
Published July 8, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 6, 2020
A powerful literary, theological, and practical masterpiece! You could easily read it in an evening, it took me "three days and nights." An absolute must read for anyone interested in the gospel of Jesus, since of course Jesus said that "the sign of the prophet Jonah would be the only sign given to this generation" (or in other words - the only sign given to humanity... ever). By expounding Jonah, and promoting "Sympathy for Jonah" the author reveals the sign. And the sign is not given to satisfy curiosity, but rather for following Jonah (and Jesus) into the belly of the beast for the sake of "the terrible other."
October 29, 2016
This was given to me by a friend as part of a big coincidence and is the most challenging book I have read for a long time. Surely the greatest and most challenging command is the distinctive call of Jesus to "love our enemies" - not just in word, nor in some mystical fashion but in practice. This is highlighted in David's book on the story of Jonah. In an incisive way he strips away the traditional tendency to berate Jonah for his cowardice or blame him for Jewish racism and also to reduce the book to a simple convenient Christian typology of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Having said that the final chapter "the Interruption" focuses on Jesus Christ but it for me is the most powerful chapter. It brought home the meaning of the cross which must transcend the Christian habit of either using it for our own selfish salvific end or else sanitising it by reducing it to some self negating mystical experience (which though important, as David says, on its own is like remaining in the belly of the whale). The ultimate challenge is in David's own words: "to radical acts of enemy love, to radical acts of grace and forgiveness, to radical transgressions of social boundaries, and radical compassion for total monsters ..."
As I write this coincidentally Mosul, the place where Jonah's tomb is reported to have been and where he was "revered by Muslims of that city", is under siege by joint forces seeking to deliver innocent people from the terrors of Isis. The challenge of this book is to me so relevant and cuts the the core of my being as I ask myself in what way radical enemy love is to be interpreted and applied in my relatively comfortable Western lifestyle. Must read it again!
Having said that the final chapter "the Interruption" focuses on Jesus Christ but it for me is the most powerful chapter. It brought home the meaning of the cross which must transcend the Christian habit of either using it for our own selfish salvific end or else sanitising it by reducing it to some self negating mystical experience (which though important, as David says, on its own is like remaining in the belly of the whale). The ultimate challenge is in David's own words: "to radical acts of enemy love, to radical acts of grace and forgiveness, to radical transgressions of social boundaries, and radical compassion for total monsters ..."
As I write this coincidentally Mosul, the place where Jonah's tomb is reported to have been and where he was "revered by Muslims of that city", is under siege by joint forces seeking to deliver innocent people from the terrors of Isis. The challenge of this book is to me so relevant and cuts the the core of my being as I ask myself in what way radical enemy love is to be interpreted and applied in my relatively comfortable Western lifestyle. Must read it again!
May 6, 2017
It's amazing. Short, eloquent, funny, insightful. This reflection (did someone call it a musical?) is a great jumping-off platform for a discussion of non-violence or Scripture in our lives or this kind of radical upending that Jesus inspires. I'm on my 3rd copy; I keep giving it away.
September 11, 2020
Every once in a while I read a book that blows (pun intended) me out of the water. This was definitely one of those books. You know that game-type question, “If you could have dinner with anyone alive who would it be?” My answer is now David Benjamin Blower. He has moved to the top of my bucket list in terms of who I want to meet in my lifetime. Google says he is a musical artist which is true, he wrote (surprise, surprise) a musical based on the Book of Jonah, which is fascinating and really great but I believe that he is a theologian of the highest insight. By the way, N. T. Wright narrates the musical “The Book of Jonah”.
Blower writes that Jonah is the most politically and religiously radical book in the Bible and that the story of Jonah is a story for our times and a guiding light on how to live right now. The book Sympathy for Jonah is short, half of it is footnotes (very well researched and documented) which is fitting given the original story is less than what a high school teacher would call 4 pages. Out of that four pages, Blower is able to present all the major tenets of Christianity from an Old Testament book about a minor Prophet.
If you want to be challenged about what it means to be a Christian, if you want to understand how radical Jesus really was, if you want to understand why Jesus told the people that the only sign they were going to get was the sign of Jonah, then read this book. The book will blow you away (pun intended).
Blower writes that Jonah is the most politically and religiously radical book in the Bible and that the story of Jonah is a story for our times and a guiding light on how to live right now. The book Sympathy for Jonah is short, half of it is footnotes (very well researched and documented) which is fitting given the original story is less than what a high school teacher would call 4 pages. Out of that four pages, Blower is able to present all the major tenets of Christianity from an Old Testament book about a minor Prophet.
If you want to be challenged about what it means to be a Christian, if you want to understand how radical Jesus really was, if you want to understand why Jesus told the people that the only sign they were going to get was the sign of Jonah, then read this book. The book will blow you away (pun intended).
September 21, 2023
Quick look at the radical call to enemy love. Pulling at the story of Jonah, the author walks you towards the countercultural actions of loving others even more than structure and reasonableness.
February 10, 2024
What a great collection of thoughts on Jonah, thanks DBB!
October 20, 2016
This evil generation seeks a sign, but none shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah---Luke 11:29
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews