Urban Morality and the Great City in the Book of Jonah

Abstract

This paper reads the book of Jonah through the lens of moral geography. It focuses on the topic of the Great City, treating Nineveh as a character within the text, seeking to explore the question as to whether there is an urban morality which can be identified by reading the text of Jonah alongside key works from the field of cultural geography. In particular the paper discusses the parallelism between human and social embodiment as channels for exploring urban identity. In this study urban evil takes its place within a wider concept of city morality when it is measured by the tension between city-state as a powerful political force and the vulnerability and finitude of urban populations.