Jonah and the human condition: life and death in Yahweh's world
Perspectives on the human condition in the Hebrew Bible -- Introduction : characterizing the human condition -- Biblical answers to "what is the human being?" -- Biblical and modern conceptions of the human condition : part one of this study -- Jonah's human condition : part two of th...
| Summary: | Perspectives on the human condition in the Hebrew Bible -- Introduction : characterizing the human condition -- Biblical answers to "what is the human being?" -- Biblical and modern conceptions of the human condition : part one of this study -- Jonah's human condition : part two of this study -- Pessimism and the human condition in the Hebrew Bible -- What exactly is "pessimism"? -- Are Qoheleth's pronouncements on death and injustice pessimistic? -- Pessimistic divine and human leaders in Deuteronomy 31 -- Pessimism among the prophets : when is death better than life? -- Conclusion -- At sea in Yahweh's world : navigating the human condition in the Hebrew Bible -- The "life is a sea voyage" metaphor -- Images of enclosure and exposure in Jonah 1-2 -- Images of enclosure and exposure in the Psalms -- Storms at sea in Psalm 107 and the issue of theodicy -- Death-and birth-as shipwreck -- Coping with the storms of life in Yahweh's world -- Conclusion -- Reading about death in biblical narrative -- The psychology of reading about death -- Reading about death and resuscitation in 2 Kings 13 -- Power and immortality : exalting Elisha's bones -- Readers' fear of death and the prospect of an afterlife -- Jonah and the human condition in Yahweh's world -- Jonah as a literary character -- Psychological judgments on Jonah's character -- What we are, and are not, told about Jonah's situation and character -- "Jonah complexes" and our own -- The plot of Jonah, childhood crises, and the perils of adulthood -- Fears of being swallowed and eaten -- Fantasies of being swallowed and killing the monster from within -- Jonah and other mature ancient heroes -- Yahweh's character and his relationship with Jonah -- Conclusion : living and dying in the Hebrew Bible -- Orwell's "essential Jonah act" -- Life and death "keeping house together" : the end of the book of Jonah -- Vulnerability and the human condition -- Weltende? visions of death, exposure, and enclosure in Jeremiah and Qoheleth -- My death in Yahweh's world. Stuart Lasine examines all aspects of the human situation and condition in Yahweh's cosmos as depicted in the Hebrew Bible. As his starting point Lasine uses the phrase "the human condition", which has been used to describe features of existence with which every person must cope, in ways which vary according to their culture, their situation within that culture, and their personality. In particular the most consistent factor that is basic to the human condition is mortality and, in the biblical context, the sometimes difficult relationship between the creator God and humankind. An examination of this forms the basis of Lasine's study, which draws analytical tools from several disciplines, including literary theory, psychology and philosophy.In the first part of the book Lasine examines a number of relevant biblical texts which display different aspects of the human condition. Part two engages in a detailed case study of one human life-situation, that of the prophet Jonah. Finally, Lasine draws together his conclusions about life and death in Yahweh's cosmos, both for characters within the world of the scriptural text and for present-day readers of the Hebrew Bible |
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| Item Description: | Abstract freely available; full-text restricted to individual document purchasers Includes bibliographical references and indexes |
| ISBN: | 0567683230 |
| Access: | Abstract freely available; full-text restricted to individual document purchasers |
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5040/9780567683250 |