Friday, October 05, 2018

A Christian Response to Dr Jordan Peterson

What are the best Christian responses you have seen to the work of Dr Jordan Peterson?

I should stress there is so much to appreciate in Peterson's work: a sense of responsibility, truth speaking, taking suffering seriously, the Bible as a fundamental guide, insights to human nature, the snakes in my own heart etc.

Some first points of response might be:

(1) Sometimes his mythological psychological readings of the Bible are a bit weird and sometimes traditional Christians would call them plain wrong. They are also not necessarily the chief concern of the Bible writers / the church who, like, really care about God!

(2) God actually does exist and that really matters. Likewise the specifics of the life and teaching of Jesus, the Word of God etc. The after life.

(3) Peterson says he lives as if God exists. But doing so would mean active involvement in the community, life and discipline of the church and this would give important spiritual and ethical shape to life. The Christian vision is of a community, a people, not just the honest seeker after truth on his own with his books and You Tube.

(4) Even if you buy a kind of evolution, it is questionable to what extent that should shape how we ought to act.

(5) It is right to encourage responsibility etc., but you probably need rather more forgiveness, grace and external power (The Holy Spirit) in your system than much of Peterson's teaching sometimes seems to imply.

(A friend kindly pointed out that Dr Alistair Roberts has thought about this rather more than I have: https://alastairadversaria.com/?s=Peterson )

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