Christians
have to get over their Jordan Peterson obsession. What I found interesting
about his debate with these atheist soyjacks is how some of them showed more
wisdom than many Christians in identifying that Peterson is nowhere near
Christianity. They saw it almost straight away.
Why doesn't
Jordan Peterson claim to be a Christian? People act like this is some profound “will
he or won't he” mystery. It is not. He has said why in his book, "But I
was truly plagued with doubt. I had outgrown the shallow Christianity of my
youth by the time I could understand the fundamentals of Darwinian theory.
After that, I could not distinguish the basic elements of Christian belief from
wishful thinking.”[1]
The reason he
does not claim to be a Chrisitan is because he sees Christianity as wishful
thinking. He has "outgrown" Christianity.
He does not
mean by this that he has grown in the faith. He means by this that he sees
Christianity as childish. The domain of silly wishful thinking. And he reiterated
in his debate with these young atheists that he still does not claim to be a
Christian and never has. Which is evident, anyway, if you pay any attention to
his writings.
You might
respond that he talks so much about Christ that he must be close. But when
Jordan Peterson speaks about Christ, he does not mean Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
born of Mary, a descendant of David according to the flesh, the Second Person of the Trinity; the Jesus of Christianity. He means a very
different Christ,
"That
is not to say (to say it again) that obedience is sufficient. But a person
capable of obedience—let’s say, instead, a properly disciplined person—is at
least a well-forged tool. At least that (and that is not nothing). Of course,
there must be vision, beyond discipline; beyond dogma. A tool still needs a
purpose. It is for such reasons that Christ said, in the Gospel of Thomas, “The
Kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, but men do not see it.”[2]
The Gospel of
Thomas is a foundational Gnostic text. The Christ of Peterson is not your
grandma's Jesus. Unless she is a Gnostic. Peterson has always presented
something more akin to a pseudo-gnostic Christ-spirit rather than the Jesus of
the Bible. To him Christ is a Jungian architype, not the real saviour of the
world.
“Nietzsche
believed that Paul, and later the Protestants following Luther, had removed
moral responsibility from Christ’s followers. They had watered down the idea of
the imitation of Christ. This imitation was the sacred duty of the believer not
to adhere (or merely to mouth) a set of statements about abstract belief but
instead to actually manifest the spirit of the Saviour in the particular,
specific conditions of his or her life—to realize or incarnate the archetype,
as Jung had it; to clothe the eternal pattern in flesh. Nietzsche writes, “The
Christians have never practiced the actions Jesus prescribed them; and the
impudent garrulous talk about the ‘justification by faith’ and its supreme and
sole significance is only the consequence of the Church’s lack of courage and
will to profess the works Jesus demanded.”144 Nietzsche was, indeed, a critic
without parallel…
…There
are other indications of this in the gospels, in dramatic, enacted form. Christ
is continually portrayed as the purveyor of endless sustenance. He miraculously
multiplies bread and fish. He turns water into wine. What does this mean? It’s
a call to the pursuit of higher meaning as the mode of living that is
simultaneously most practical and of highest quality. It’s a call portrayed in
dramatic/literary form: live as the archetypal Saviour lives, and you and those
around you will hunger no more. The beneficence of the world manifests itself
to those who live properly. That’s better than bread. That’s better than the
money that will buy bread. Thus Christ, the symbolically perfect individual,
overcomes the first temptation. Two more follow.”[3]
What Jesus being able to multiply bread ctually means is that Jesus is the bread of life and we must trust in him. He is the provider of all things including salvation. But Peterson presents Christ as a spiritual principle rather than the saviour of all mankind. This is very different. This is nowhere near Christianity.
Peterson has
told us many times that he does not believe in Jesus Christ of the scriptures
or the Christian creeds, and that he is not a Christian. So, I think it is time
for people to move on from their obsession with this man. Peterson’s writings
and teachings, in my view, are not designed to point people to Jesus Christ, but
beyond Jesus Christ. Something the ancient Gnostics sought to do. This man is
not a teacher any Christian should sit under.
List of
References
[1] Peterson,
Jordan B.. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (p. 196). Penguin Books Ltd.
Kindle Edition.
[2] Peterson,
Jordan B.. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (p. 103). Penguin Books Ltd.
Kindle Edition.
[3] Peterson,
Jordan B.. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (p. 182, 189). Penguin Books
Ltd. Kindle Edition.
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