ECOLOGICAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE JONAH NARRATIVE â€“ HAVE THEY SUCCEEDED IN OVERCOMING ANTHROPOCENTRISM?

Willie Van Heerden

doi:10.25159/1013-8471/2775

Authors

Willie Van Heerden Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies University of South Africa P.O. Box 392 Pretoria 0003 South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2775

Abstract

A central concern of ecological biblical hermeneutics is to overcome the anthropocentric bias we are likely to find both in interpretations of the biblical texts and in the biblical text itself. One of the consequences of anthropocentrism has been described as a sense of distance, separation, and otherness in the relationship between humans and other members of the Earth community. This article is an attempt to determine whether extant ecological interpretations of the Jonah narrative have successfully addressed this sense of estrangement. The article focuses on the work of Ernst M. Conradie (2005), Raymond F. Person (2008), Yael Shemesh (2010), Brent A. Strawn (2012), and Phyllis Trible (1994, 1996).

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