Re: Hell and Jonah -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1], 2 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 06:03:53 03/04/08 Tue
Author: Betsy Peters
Subject: Re: Hell and Jonah
In reply to: Shannon 's message, "Hell" on 13:13:53 02/27/08 Wed

In considering our attitude towards the divine as defining our "heaven" or "hell", I wonder if the book of Jonah speaks to this understanding of repentance. The Prophet Jonah first responds to God's command by fleeing from his presence, hopping on a boat and sailing away from Nineveh to Tarsish. He thinks that his relationship with God is defined by the physical space between them. Once Jonah spends some time thinking in the belly of a fish, he agrees to return to Nineveh. I would possit that Jonah, as he watches the repentance of Nineveh, sees that proximity or distance from the Lord has everything to do with the position of the heart and not one's geographical location. It also appears from the text that he refuses to change his understanding of proximity to the orientation of his own mind towards God. It appears to me that Jonah ends the book just as far away from God as he begins it as he is "angry unto death" that God has had mercy on Nineveh and has destroyed his plant.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

Jonah, God, and Nineveh -- Betsy Peters, 06:15:26 03/04/08 Tue

Re: Jonah, God, and Nineveh -- j.jackson, 06:36:12 03/04/08 Tue

Re: Jonah, God, and Nineveh -- Erin Risch, 20:30:30 03/09/08 Sun
- On suicide -- Betsy Peters, 10:01:30 03/11/08 Tue
- Row against the storm to stop reciprocation -- Betsy Peters, 10:08:38 03/11/08 Tue