Jonah and the whale

[mschlimg]

I have a couple of theological questions that I would like to address, hopefully leading to personal clarification on the matter. During my sons, religion class at St. Simon he told me that his religion teacher taught that bible stories such as Jonah and the whale were fictional stories designed to deliver a spiritual message.

In response, I told him that his religion teacher’s personal stance was not supported by teaching of the Bible nor the Catholic Church. Recently I have learned that this may be the teaching in St. Simon’s RCIA program. I was under the assumption that the Bible combined with the Catholic Catechist teaches true Catholicism.

Therefore, my theological question is, Do the teachings of the Catholic Church support, or leave any room for the belief that bible stories such as Jonah and the whale are fictional stories designed to deliver a spiritual message?

 

[mercygate]

Yes. The Church has not declared that a literal interpretatioan of this story is either mandated or forbidden. We are free to view it according to our own best lights, which includes a literal or a figurative reading (per Karl Keating in Catholicism and Fundamentalism). I presume you have reviewed the sections in the Catechism on the four levels of scriptural interpretation, or you would not have posed this question.

 

[Cherub]

mercygate:

I presume you have reviewed the sections in the Catechism on the four levels of scriptural interpretation, or you would not have posed this question.

Does that mean if the person had read the Catechism sections, then the question would not have been asked? Or do you mean you presume it was read and that its reading caused the question?

 

[mercygate]

Cherub:

Does that mean if the person had read the Catechism sections, then the question would not have been asked? Or do you mean you presume it was read and that its reading caused the question?

He read it & that caused the question.

 

[RNRobert]

I have no problem with accepting a literla interpretation of this story. For one thing, nothing is impossible with God. If Jesus could perform all sorts of miracles (including the BIG one of rising from the dead) then keeping Jonah alive in a whale for three days would be small potatoes. For another thing, I’ve read an actual account (I have it in a book I think, I’ll have to look it up when I have more time) of a 19th century sailor who was lost overboard and presumed dead. A couple days later, the ship (a whaler) was harvesting a whale when the missing sailor was found inside, scared out of his wits, but still very much alive.

I think the problem has more to do with a mindset that rejects anything that smacks of the miraculous. I find it puzzling; after all, our faith is based on a Miracle (God becoming man and rising from the dead) and if God can’t work miracles, then our faith is dead and we are still in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:15).