A New Kind Of Christian

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You’ll be overjoyed to hear that Jordan B. Peterson has a new book out. He’s been busy promoting the not at all pretentiously titled We Who Wrestle With God. He was interviewed about it recently in British magazine The Spectator. The interview has to be read to be believed. The introduction can be read here but the rest, alas, is behind a paywall. Don’t worry though, I’ll supply you with the highlights. The article is a goldmine of stupefying statements about God and how Jordan is the only one who really understands the Bible’s stories. They need ‘arranging’, you see, and their underlying ‘hypotheses’ understood:

The Bible presents a series of hypotheses. One is that there’s an underlying unity that brings together all structures of value. The second claim is that there’s a relationship between the human psyche and that unity and each of the main biblical stories casts that unity in a different light, accompanied by the insistence that, despite those differences, what is being pointed to is one animating principle. As far as I can tell, that’s correct.

You got that? As ol’ Jordan humbly admits, this ‘revolutionary realisation’ is his and his alone. Of course, none of this sort of thing is original; the idea that characters, events and stories in the Old Testament prefigure realities in the New is as old as the hills. Typology can be imposed on any set of myths. The gospel writers and Paul did it, seeing Jesus prefigured in Jewish scripture and inventing stories about him so that he complied with these earlier types. There’s nothing ‘revolutionary’ about spotting this, but like so many before him, Peterson gets it back to front and falls, quite literally, for the oldest trick in the Book.

Despite this, Jordan is convinced that it’s atheists who miss ‘the mark’ (that only he hits) ‘because the God that’s disbelieved isn’t defined’. No, Jordan. Atheists don’t believe in any God, defined however you like. We disbelieve in all of them, including your own idiosyncratic (or is that idiotic?) construct that you assure us has nothing to do with Dawkins’ ‘fascist terrorist’ of the Old Testament. YHWH’s creators certainly wouldn’t recognise your pseudo-intellectual remodelling of the God they thought lived just above the mountain tops.

Peterson then drags in the quantum level, which he patently has no understanding of (because practically no-one does) using it as an analogy for his newly-minted divinity. Our correspondent Arnold did the same thing recently, implying that a material phenomenon we don’t understand is comparable with the ‘impenetrable mystery’ (Peterson) that is God.

Jordan then claims he’s ‘a new kind Christian’, which he certainly is; he’s a cult of one with an interpretation of the Bible that is all his own. What his brand of Christianity has in common with all the others is its meaninglessness. I’m all for people having a familiarity with the Bible when much Western culture draws on it, but to conclude from a reading of it that ‘the supernatural and the natural are constantly operative in our lives’ is an absurd non-sequitur.

Peterson sees himself as one of today’s leading intellectuals. He is nothing of the sort. He is a self-promoting obfuscator, a pseudo-intellectual who speaks to no-one but other pseudo-intellectuals. This‍ Emperor has no clothes (except for one mismatched suit).

We Who Wrestle With God is out now. I suggest you buy something by Jonathan Haidt or Douglas Murray instead. You might not agree with them, but at least you’ll know what they’re talking about.

31 thoughts on “A New Kind Of Christian”

      • He said, “You can only find out what you actually believe (rather than what you think you believe) by watching how you act.” Your actions prove your beliefs.

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      • Or run contrary to them. It’s called hypocrisy.
        Tell me, Arnold if you’re going out on a limb in trusting Jesus, do you do what he tells you to do in the gospels? You know, the stuff about loving your enemies, going the extra mile, giving to everyone who asks, repeatedly turning the other cheek… Or are these things you think can be ignored because he probably didn’t actually say them?

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      • I think Jesus probably did say to love God and your neighbor. That goes for enemies too. So that’s what I try to do.

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      • You only try? Not sure that’ll be good enough for Jesus. He’s incredibly demanding you know. And what about those other commands I mention (and those I don’t)? Do you ‘try’ with those too? You say you’re testing God. Isn’t faith in Jesus the other way round? He’s looking to see how you perform.

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      • Well, he purportedly said to ‘be perfect, as is God.’ So I take that to mean ‘Live via God’s spirit in you’ and it’ll all come out in the wash.

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      • Is “the wash” eternal life Arnold?

        I don’t know Arnold. Perhaps a bit of arrogance is applied here? One claims “God’s spirit” is in them, therefore, they are perfect? Yes, I know you will say no Zoe, God is perfect, it is His spirit in me that makes me perfect. Don’t get me wrong, it’s lovely spiritual bypassing rhetoric but I still hear arrogance. And yes, I know it’s what you “take that to mean.”

        See, I think you come out in the wash because you are so-called perfect via the Gift. I am dirty water with no hope ever of being clean. You imply that well, that’s your problem Zoe. You can do that by saying, well actually Zoe not my problem, but God’s. All you have to do is this and this and finally that. I get it. You are comfortable with that. And I think you see yourself as quite liberal actually. Are you? I mean as long as you pontificate that you are perfect it is comforting, I know. You are going to come out the spin-cycle fresh and clean. A white robe awaits you. I suspect this is all too literal for you?

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      • “It’ll all come out” is faith, confidence, my hope. “In the wash” is life. Right or wrong or arrogant, it’s how I choose to live, Zoe.

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      • Ya’ know, Arnold … I think it’s fine and dandy that this is how you choose to live. But why must you continue to remind us of this fact on various and sundry blogs that are run by NON-believers?

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      • But Arnold has a new and improved Jesus fantasy! And his is truer than all the Jesus fantasies that came before. We are all very proud of Arnold.

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      • Living Jesus?

        You mean running around an obscure backwater in the Middle East, never having a proper wash or shower, smelling to high heaven, never getting laid or eating pizza then finally getting nailed to a tree for pissing off the Romans?

        No thanks.. I’ll pass.

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      • Ark said: Living Jesus? You mean running around … never getting laid … ?

        Well, he was running around with 12 hand picked young men. So ???

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      • You are an evangelist who believes it is your responsibility to preach Jesus in all sorts of forms. Any form that might trigger a spiritual moment in those you preach too. Evangelism is not a suggestion. It is a black and white presentation, even in the most progressive and or liberal sense. It’s an either/or proposition. It’s an us vs them. You continue to read that we are all “rejecting Jesus.” You continue to tell us that it’s better with Jesus or Christ or the Christ or God but maybe not the triune God, or maybe the triune God but you don’t know, or I don’t want to think of hell because well, I don’t think the Bible is a bag of chips and then some, though God inspired (rather wrongly here and there) it’s still His book, His way, His plan.

        You are dangling a carrot with the hope of reaching us. I get it.

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      • I can think of a MUCH better thing Arnold can do with this carrot, it is simply a matter of him deciding which of orifice of his he would prefer.

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  3. Long before Peterson was a name anyone really paid attention to, he was on Canadian T.V. programs a lot. I remember thinking, this Christian is sliding into a new direction. Years later, listening to him on some podcasts I can only think that he makes absolutely no sense and he does it in such a way that he convinces you that he does. He, can’t seem to have a conversation without raising his voice, upping his tempo and interrupting ad nauseum. He presents himself as an authority on almost if not all things. I wouldn’t read his book because my brains are already scrambled by his notions. I wonder though, is it just atheists or does he think other religions miss the mark too?

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    • Unless he’s changed his mind recently, Jordo believes that The Bible is the heart and soul of “Western Civilization” and western civilization is the One True™ civilization. So, yes, Jordo thinks all other religions are wrong. Amazingly, his version of Christianity is the One True Christianity.™. He’s SO smart!

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