Jonah on the Web

Welcome to Jonah on the Web, an annotated guide to the story of Jonah, in faith, art and culture, from the Bible to today. The site includes an organized and annotated list of over 200 articles, pages and sites and over 150 pictures.

The Complete Guide to Jonah and the Whale

This website finds, sorts and describes more than 200 of the best websites, from every religious and non-religious perspective. About Jonah provides introductions and academic articles, Texts covers the Book of Jonah, the New Testament mentions and passages from the Koran. Fact or Not? covers the argument over literalism and "historicity," skeptics and Fundamentalists.

The heart of the website are the 100 sermons and essays from contemporary Jews, Christians and Muslims, demonstrating Jonah's enduring place in religious thought, and the great diversity of ways the Book of Jonah has been and is now read. These are divided into Jewish, Mainline Protestant, Other Christian, including evangelicals and Catholics, and a section for Islam and other traditions.

Finally, I collect literary reference, art history discussion, some "fun" pages, stuff for kids and "miscellaneous" material.

Pictures of Jonah and the Whale (over 150 pictures)

More About the Project

I conceived of this project after completing a similar site on Noah's Ark, another topic both popular and resonant. As with Noah, I am not attempting to present a single religious point of view, but present an exhaustive survey of many different points of view. At the same time, I do not completely hide my beliefs, or my anti-literalist, scholarly approach. If evidence of even-handedness is needed, I note that I am a Catholic by confession, but made no special effort to "talk up" the Catholic material. Indeed, if calling much of the Catholic material weak and superficial is a sin, there's a whale out there with my name on it!

I know I didn't get it all. I will add anything remotely relevant. Email what I've missed to [email protected]. Or just write to give me an earful; I'd love to hear what you have to say.

Thank you for coming!

Tim Spalding
Portland, Maine