Rather Jonah became a reluctant prophet because he knew God's grace would overwhelm Israel's enemy. It is not that Jonah hesitated and, then, refused to go to Nineveh because the task would be difficult (although that is an argument from silence). It is clear that Jonah believed in the efficacy of God's message. The mandate to preach repentance is inexorably linked to the announcement of God’s grace and forgiveness. Jonah was called to go and to preach to Nineveh. Rather than the story being only about Nineveh, or about God's message, all of the lessons seem to be centered in the person of Jonah. One of those is the way the historical account is conceived and recorded. The book of Jonah is remarkable for several reasons. Since we interpret Scripture by other Scriptures, and since our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ told the book of Jonah as history ( Matthew 12:39-41), so must we. Long strands of briny seaweed wrapped around Jonah’s neck and the distinct rankness of a creature’s stomach acid digesting the prophet would remain with Jonah for the rest of his life. He would have very likely carried PTSD and claustrophobia with him for the rest of his life. Liberal scholars might dismiss the story of Jonah’s prayer time in a fish belly as riotous rabbinical storytelling, but Jonah would surely protest. Those who hold Jonah as a mythological yarn seek to strengthen their unbelieving position by adding disbelief in a fish swallowing Jonah and, then, spitting the reluctant revivalist onto the shore. The book of Jonah is often characterized by liberal theologians as a metaphorical story to teach Israel to be more open to others. In the north of modern-day Iraq, next to the city of Mosul, the remains of Nineveh, stand as testimony to the historicity of the story in Jonah. So great was this monumental world capital that considerable remnants of Nineveh remain to this day. The minor prophet, Jonah, takes place when Nineveh, “that great city,” was the largest city on the face of the earth. God does not want us to forget the lessons of the book of Jonah, nor the destiny of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. This seminal book opens up in an entirely new way our understanding of the real purpose storytelling plays in our lives, and will be a talking point for years to come.Rudyard Kipling, the great English poet of the first part of the 20th century, considered the strengths and influence of the British Empire but warned his fellow subjects of the crown that empires are fleeting. Drawing on a vast array of examples, from Proust to detective stories, from the Marquis de Sade to E.T., Christopher Booker then leads us through the extraordinary changes in the nature of storytelling over the past 200 years, and why so many stories have 'lost the plot' by losing touch with their underlying archetypal purpose.īooker analyses why evolution has given us the need to tell stories and illustrates how storytelling has provided a uniquely revealing mirror to mankind's psychological development over the past 5000 years.
INMOST PLOT TV
Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it shows that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of storytelling.īut this is only the prelude to an investigation into how and why we are 'programmed' to imagine stories in these ways, and how they relate to the inmost patterns of human psychology.
This remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of 'basic stories' in the world.
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