I AM of the generation that got to know large parts of the Bible through singing, usually at school. I got to know the book of Jonah at an early age through the music of Michael Hurd’s cantata Jonah-Man Jazz.
The great city of Nineveh is up to no good, Jonah is called to speak words of repentance to them, he runs away, gets cast into the sea, is swallowed by a fish and thrown up again, goes back and does what God asked him to do in the first place, and the people repent and their hedonistic dancing of sin is transformed into dancing of praise. Cue lots of great tunes and an action-packed story for young singers.
And there is nothing wrong with that: the story has stayed with me ever since, especially the line that “Jonah had a whale of a time.” Jonah and the whale: a great story. Simple.
But, of course, there is far more to him than that. Jonah is a complex figure. He gets cross — with God and himself; he gets depressed, he is fearful of his calling, he does not trust in God, and he is perversely annoyed when the people do actually repent and listen to his preaching. The book that bears his name is funny (we don’t expect comedy in the Bible). And it is odd, ending with our hero seated by a dead tree in the middle of nowhere. And this is the sign that, Jesus says, will be given to his generation (Matthew 12.38-42).
Robert Atwell was until fairly recently the Bishop of Exeter, having been a Benedictine monk for many years. Bewilderment looks anew at the book of Jonah for our generation, and very good it is, too. Coming out of a series of quiet-day reflections, the book reflects on the doubts, anxieties, confusions, and turbulence of Jonah’s and our times, and invites the reader not to evade but, rather, to embrace them with watchfulness and trust. The author quotes a theologian who describes the book as a “theological exploration of bewilderment”.
This book is for the thinker and the doubter, and is a fine antidote to the false positivity that all too often masks the soul from the God who seeks it.
The Revd Peter McGeary is the Vicar of St Mary’s, Cable Street, in east London.
Bewilderment: A spiritual guide
Robert Atwell
Canterbury Press £14.99
(978-1-78622-647-1)
Church Times Bookshop £13.49