Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
In Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet, Dr. Erica Brown takes us on a journey over land and sea, in the footsteps of the Bible’s most recalcitrant prophet. Melding traditional commentators, rabbinic literature, modern biblical scholarship, psychological sensitivity, and artistic imagination, Brown travels through the four chapters of Jonah’s story tracing his call to leadership, his subsequent intransigence, his momentary rise to duty and his tragic resignation in an effort to discover God’s ultimate lesson for him. With insight and feeling, Brown provides us with a glimpse into the tormented soul of the prophet as he grapples with the notion of a forgiving God who is concerned even with the welfare of Israel’s strongest adversary. As God struggles to teach His prophet to expand his vision and take up his divine mission, we come to understand the Divine call given to each of us to rise up to the possibility of greatness. After all, if God can change His plan, we can change as well.
- Travels through the four chapters of Jonah’s story.
- Provides us with a glimpse into the tormented soul of the prophet.
- Shows us the struggles to teach His prophet to expand his vision and take up his divine mission.
- Title: Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet (Maggid Studies in Tanakh)
- Author: Erica Brown
- Series: Maggid Studies in Tanakh
- Publisher: The Toby Press
- Print Publication Date: 2017
- Pages: 286
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- ISBNs: 9781592644858, 1592644856
- Resource ID: LLS:MST32JON
- Resource Type: Bible Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-07-08T23:29:01Z
Dr. Erica Brown is the Vice Provost for Values and Leadership at Yeshiva University and the founding director of its Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks–Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership. She previously served as the director of the Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership at The George Washington University and as the Scholar-in-Residence for the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston and the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. Brown was a Jerusalem Fellow, an Avi Chai Fellow, the recipient of the 2009 Covenant Award, and is a faculty member of the Wexner Foundation. She has written or co-authored fifteen books on the Hebrew Bible, spirituality, and leadership and has been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Tablet, First Things, and The Jewish Review of Books and wrote a monthly column for the New York Jewish Week. She currently serves as a community scholar for Congregation Etz Chaim in Livingston, New Jersey. Brown has interviewed Isaac Herzog, the President of Israel, Madeleine Albright, David Brooks, Jeffrey Goldberg, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, David Gregory, Dennis Ross, David Makovsky, Sarah Hurwitz, Ruth Messinger, and Dara Horn, among others. She tweeted on one page of Talmud study a day at DrEricaBrown. Her latest books are Morning Has Broken (Maggid, 2024) and Ecclesiastes-Kohelet and the Search for Meaning (Maggid, 2023). She is the proud mother of four children, four in-law children, and five beautiful grandchildren.