Reimagining Jonah: A Flight to Freedom

What would cause a proclaimed prophet to run away from everything he called home and dodge the unyielding God of his tribe? Devoted to an uncompromising commitment to selfhood, Dr. Doug Wheeler challenges the traditional assumption that Jonah was a miserable coward by examining him as a deeply conflicted, courageous, and soulful man. With a poetic flair, Reimagining Jonah provokes and confounds with language flavored by trauma and empathy, producing a richly contemplative and profoundly human version of this well-known tale. “Here is the story of Jonah like you have never heard it before! Doug Wheeler brings to his writing his long wise years as a pastoral therapist. He knows that every story we tell — including Jonah’s — is thick with subterranean transactions and freighted with background. It turns out that the story, in his gifted artistry, is an account of being “born again” in freedom as a true self, engaged with the real world, and partnered with the holy God who is well beyond all of our idols. Wheeler insists in an inescapable way on our being participants in the narrative, with an earnest of good outcomes for our role in the story that is as contemporary as it is ancient.” — Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary

Learn More