From coercion to conversation: Reimagining divine mandate and cross-cultural engagement through the lens of Jonah

Abstract

Traditional Christian missiology, rooted in exclusivist soteriology, struggles to offer a coherent and ethically responsible framework for engagement in Ghana’s religiously pluralist context, yet theological resistance to redefining mission persists. This article aims to demonstrate that the Book of Jonah provides substantive biblical warrant for a redefined, contextually sensitive missiology, one rooted in radical compassion rather than coercive proclamation. The article seeks to distil operative principles that can reframe Christian missionary practice in Ghana while respecting religious difference and maintaining confessional integrity. This will be achieved through a synchronic literary analysis of the Book of Jonah to critique religious exclusivism and propose models of a divine mandate rooted in compassion rather than coercive declarations. The Jonah narrative deconstructs nationalist zeal and rather highlights Yahweh’s concern for the pagan ‘other’.
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This yields five operative principles for mission: moral imperative as foundation, qualitative transformation over quantitative expansion, rejection of coercive evangelistic methods, a missional ethic grounded in creation theology and the humility of the missionary. Therefore, the study seeks to develop an ethically sound, biblically based missiological alternative that shifts from forceful proclamation to compassionate discourse.