Parish Magazine Item on Jordan Peterson

From The Rectory

If you’ve ever ventured on to the Information Super Highway, you may have come across Canadian psychologist, Dr Jordan Peterson. He came to prominence when he objected to compelled speech over the use of pronouns. His Channel 4 interview with Cathy Newman (which you can find on YouTube) has been viewed 49 million times. He sells out large venues, especially to crowds of young men seeking some sense of purpose and ambition. And his books on Rules for Life are firm best sellers. Anyway, I mention him here because he has recently become more interested in the Bible. I’ve just finished reading his book on the Old Testament (We Who Wrestle With God: Perceptions of the Divine, Allen Lane / Penguin Random House, 2024 - ISBN: 9780241619612 hb, 544pp). And he has another book on the New Testament forthcoming.

 

I have some quibbles with Peterson’s book and some pretty fundamental disagreements with his overall message. I could recommend far better introductions to the Old Testament.

 

Peterson is not a conventional Christian believer. He equivocates on what it would mean for God to exist and whether or not Jesus’ tomb was empty. But I still found his book worth reading. It is insightful in places, even if a lot of dross has to be refined or discarded. I want to focus here on three things I think Peterson gets right – or at least partly right as far as he goes.

 

First, Peterson would say that some kind of “God” is inescapable. We all have something (or perhaps a number of things) which we think are either foundational, or central, or ultimate. We can leave the foundation unexamined or not. We can live more ignorantly or more thoughtfully. And we all need some higher purpose. We cannot live a satisfying life if we live merely for now and for our own personal hedonistic pleasure. That way of life is self-defeating, self-destructive. And we do not want to worship Power, or Technology, or Cleverness. We do not want a war of the gods. We need the One True God.  

 

And faith is inescapable. Eventually you have to bet your life on something, probably without mathematical certainty. You have to live as if something is true and matters. By all means search and ask your questions. But to decide for a sceptical agnosticism is still to decide. And again, it’s an unstable decision, not one which is life-giving or conducive to human flourishing. That is the wisdom of the ages and the collective judgement of most of the people who have ever lived.

 

And the Bible is inescapable. Peterson is to be commended for paying attention to these texts which have formed Western civilisation. He rightly perceives that these are our deepest stories. Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, The Tower of Babel, Abraham, Moses, David and Goliath. These are better than all the best fairy stories. Whether or not you take them literally, these stories contain profound truths. They make sense of the world. They call us to the great adventure of a meaningful life.

 

You may want to read Peterson’s book, but I think reading the Bible is essential. I would say that as a Vicar, of course. But any educated Western person needs to know something of this Book. Whatever your starting point or conclusions so far, I don’t think you’d regret spending some more time with these great Book of Books.

 

Of course I think God is real. I think trust in Jesus is vital. I think the Bible is God’s Word Written. But even if you don’t agree with me on that, these issues and these texts are worth your serious engagement. I hope for many, Peterson, his books and online content, might be a way in. Perhaps many will leap ahead of him into the Kingdom of God. Perhaps you will.    

 

The Revd Marc Lloyd