Theology Today - Vol 51, No. 2 - July 1994 - BOOK REVIEW - A Poetics of Jonah: Art in the Service of Ideology

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A Poetics of Jonah: Art in the Service of Ideology
By Kenneth M. Craig, Jr.
Columbia, SC, University of South Carolina Press, 1993. 221 pp. $34.95.

Kenneth Craig of Chowan College in Murfreesboro, North Carolina, introduces this book with a statement from Robert Alter:

Subsequent religious tradition has by and large encouraged us to take the Bible seriously rather than to enjoy it, but the paradoxical truth of the matter

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may well be that by learning to enjoy the biblical stories more fully as stories, we sail also come to see more clearly what they mean to tell us about God, man [and woman], and the periously momentous realm of history.

Craig's concern is to help us enjoy the story of Jonah more fully and, thereby, to assist us in understanding more fully what it means. When readers have finished the tale, he contends, they will have had, "ample opportunity to find fault with one character in particular-and perhaps even with themselves."

While Craig's work builds upon studies by George Landes, Phyllis Trible, and Hans Walter Wolff, he acknowledges special indebtedness to Jack Sasson's commentary on Jonah, and to the writings on poetic theory by Mikhail Bakhtin and Meir Sternberg.

An opening chapter defines and discusses poetics and offers a new translation of the story. He assumes that the Jonah text is "an artful narrative rather than a clumsy redaction" (quoting Robert Polzin). Chapter two is an instructive consideration of changes made from the RSV to the NRSV translation. A third chapter considers "The Narrator and Characters." The narrator writes from an omniscient perspective, knowing how the prophet feels (4:1,6) as well as what God sees (3: 10), but not sharing all with the reader. Again Craig quotes Polzin, "The narrator's style is to point rather than to say, reflect rather than project." Chapter four, "Jonah and the Reading Process," argues that the poetic prayer in Jonah 2 should be understood as integral to the story, since it is part of a major pattern in the book overarching all of the action."

Chapter five is an especially valuable consideration of the seven references to prayer in the Jonah book: 1:5, 6b; 2:3 and 2:6-8 (English 2:2 and 2:5-7); 3:8, and the verbally recorded prayers in 1:14, 2:3-10 (English 2:2-9) and 4:2-3. Jonah 2:3 and 6-8 point to Jonah's earlier prayer, offered as he went down into the sea. Chapter 6 investigates the prayer in Jonah 2 in the light of recent studies on Hebrew poetry by Kugel, Walsh, Christensen, and Cross. Craig concludes that the biblical writers did indeed distinguish between poetry and prose (contra Kugel) and provides an analysis of the prayer in the light of works by Benjamin Hrushovski and Adele Berlin. Chapter seven, "Representation of the Inner Life: A Case for Inside Views," finds nineteen examples of glimpses into the inner life of the characters in the story, especially the inner life of Jonah. Craig cites S. D. F. Goitein, "Jonah is not painted with the brush of mockery or disdain, but drawn with the pencil of deep and sympathetic insight into human weakness." The final chapter, "The Ideological Plane: Summary and Conclusion," asks about the values and attitudes the text communicates to the reader. Craig summarizes: God controls everything and is free to command not only the natural elements but the prophet as well, free to forecast impending doom, and free also to alter plans.

I found this to be an exceptionally careful study, coming at the familiar biblical story with some new questions and resulting in a goodly number of fresh insights. Though many recent scholars continue to regard the

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prayer in Jonah 2 as secondary (Wolff, Vanoni, Weimar), Craig's work sucessfully demonstrates that it is essential to the structure of the book as a whole. (I would, however, understand those sections that speak about the Lord as connected with the use of Jonah in community worship; see my Jonah in the Old Testament Library.) In learning to enjoy the story more fully, we do indeed come to see more clearly what it means to tell us about God and ourselves.

The book is beautifully produced, fully indexed, and may be considered essential for further study of this ever fascinating prophetic book.

James Limburg
Luther Seminary
St. Paul, MN