Jordan B. PetersonWe Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine

Okay, Jordan Peterson. What of him, and his new book, “We Who Wrestle With God.” As a review of Peterson by Edward Hamilton has it, “Peterson is the only effective Christian evangelist to a vast unconverted community of young male autists, and that makes it aggravating that he's so bad at becoming a Christian himself.”So, is Jordan Peterson Christian, I guess that would be the first and most pressing question. My response would be that such an answer should be considered with great care. Presuming that the answer is being asked and answered from within the Christian world. Which would certainly include me, as well as most of the people who attempt to answer the question. I have been in church all of my life, although not with quite the same experiences as what might be considered normal for various reasons.These reasons likely form my response to Peterson which is different from what I am seeing in the reviews by many established Christian thinkers. Those reviews go something like this. Sure, Peterson is saying a lot of good things, and having a large impact on young men, but his concept of God is definitely not Christian. The tone is that of a cautiously held distance. My instinct is to turn that caution towards ourselves. We are the ones who should experience humility and caution in our response to Peterson.From what I can tell Peterson is not even speaking to Christian believers. To the extent that he is, the effect is accidental in my opinion. Maybe that is the first problem. Christians think the Christian message is their message and not Petersons. Hence Peterson must come under their control and approval. Maybe Christians should reevaluate the ownership of the gospel message. Are they really in charge or is God in charge.Clearly Peterson feels that he has been invited into participating in faith and in understanding the biblical text. I would advise great care in any attempts to block that path.Secondly, is Peterson’s view of God the one understood by Christians? And granted that the ground changes as Peterson’s exposure does, but my comments are made with where we are at with the book, “We Who Wrestle with God.”What is God, and what is belief in God? Peterson opens in chapter one asking, “How is God presented as the great book of Genesis begins? As an animated spirit—creative, mobile, and active—something that does, and is. God is, in short, a character whose personality reveals itself as the biblical story proceeds.”Okay. Sounds reasonable and straightforward, but it isn’t really. Nothing is ever simple with Peterson. Number one, Peterson says that, Genesis is presenting God as an animated spirit. Which is correct in the accepted Christian understanding, but Peterson artfully points out that Genesis is saying this. Nothing about whether he agrees or not. Because here is the problem. As presented by Genesis this animated spirit lies outside of time and space, that is created time and space. The theological word would be transcendent.Peterson appears to avoid making any personal statement in agreement with Genesis. Why? Well, he earlier makes much of the claim that such a statement, contrary to accepted views, produces nothing of value. That the accepted view is off the rails, flailing about and accomplishing nothing. That there is no virtue, in Peterson’s view, of an exoteric statement concerning reality that lies beyond space and time. Because obviously such a statement could only be made on the basis of faith, since anything outside of space and time cannot be measured from within time and space, and would therefore require communication based on faith.Accepted Christianity calls this divine inspiration, where men hear a voice, a voice which is not communicated to them by anything contained within time and space or matter. Peterson does not deny that such a thing may exist, only a statement that he knows nothing further about such matters. As he knows nothing about the virgin birth, or the physical resurrection of Christ, all things that require interaction or communication with a being outside of time and space.That is Peterson. A man firmly planted with his feet on the ground, aiming upwards from an impulse written into the cosmos, and aided by that impulse should any man incline himself to a full and vigorous response to the impulse. The question of how the impulse was placed there, is not delved into from what I have heard.Peterson does open up the issue of the placement of the voice of God in creation. He does so in “We Who Wrestle with God,” page 230. We would know this in Christianity as the two-fold revelation of God, one being the book of scriptures, and the second being the book of creation.Here is the quote. “The moral of the story, once again? Do not ascribe to yourself the right to question the minimal necessary preconditions for harmonious being established by what is truly transcendent—or all is lost. Certain axioms must be held as sacred for the game itself to proceed without degenerating into a fallen, self-conscious, prideful hell.”So there we have it. Peterson believes in the transcendent, or kind of, in a distant, it is said sort of way. Not nearly a hearty enough embrace to satisfy the Christian world, but at least an acknowledgement that action has occurred in the created worlds that requires a transcendent being.What Peterson does embrace wholeheartedly is the voice of God in creation. This is apparently the root of the Christian quarrel with Nietzsche, and his famous declaration that God was dead. From Peterson’s telling, Nietzsche is not talking about the transcendent God, as is assumed by Christian thought. Which is what I mean by saying that we should be certain we understand the arguments before we hold forth our opinions.Here is how Peterson has Nietzsche, page 162 of “We Who Wrestle with God.”“Those who carelessly destroy the living spirit of the past invite the return of chaos itself. Nietzsche warned of exactly this when he announced the death of God.”Peterson has the statement from Nietzsche quote in context. Nietzsche said, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? Is not the greatness of this death too great for us.”This then, this death of God, is completely another argument, and is not even remotely related to killing the transcendent God. Nor is Nietzsche claiming that such a death has occurred. What was killed was the highest expression of God which the world has owned.Peterson says further, “The intuition of such backlash lingers in our souls. The apocalyptic dread that seizes us in our apprehension that nature herself will rebel, for example, against our technological presumption is a modern re-presentation of precisely this theme. We deaden the spirit of the past at our great peril.”Peterson correctly identifies the highest order of this voice of God written in creation as being the reality that each human is created in the image of God. Peterson asks on page 36, “Do we believe that we are made, man and woman alike, in the very image of God? And if so, what does it mean to believe? And if not what do we believe instead—or do we merely believe in nothing and suffer the terrible anxiety-provoking, hope-devouring, and socially destabilizing consequences of that?”Peterson quotes Carl Jung elsewhere as saying, “People in the modern world don’t see God because they don’t look low enough.”Peterson explains further on page 186, “It is impossible for anyone who holds his tradition in contempt, and arrogates to himself an unearned comparative moral version of it, to simultaneously embody that tradition, let alone its best. To the degree that such embodiment is necessary, in relationship to present or future success (and it is necessary to the degree that tradition has genuinely brought forward the proper spirit and practice of comprehensive adaptation), failure to make it manifest will produce comparative failure.”Peterson is therefore able to bring even the evolutionary force into his definition of God, as the evolutionary force aims upward. It’s a strange state of affairs, and unsettling indeed to the Christian world when dissected to any great extent. Why not cross the river, the Christian might ask, and whole heartedly embrace the supernatural, or the transcendent, but Peterson doesn’t.Everything Peterson does is executed from within the time and space point of view. That this produces such an astoundingly accurate view of truth and of truthful living is the mystery. I finished his “Maps of Meaning,” and told myself. I haven’t read anything so decidedly Christian in a long time. “We Who Wrestle with God,” is no different. This stuff should be taught in Church. That it is not taught causes my hesitation to condemn the man as unchristian, even though he flies outside of accepted Christian parameters. Perhaps the Christian world with its fragmentation and the awfully lived lives of many of its top adherents is the problem.Peterson is about works. Which sets off another firestorm in the Christian world. A world that has made faith everything at the expense of works. Peterson fires back at his antagonists with quotes from Christ himself, which proclaim that it is not those who say they belong to Christ who will be given entrance into heaven, but those who have done the will of Christ.Peterson would be a modern James, who faced down the mighty Paul himself, by declaring that faith cannot exist without works, and that he, James would rather demonstrate his faith by producing works, than he would demonstrate his works by producing faith.So there we have Peterson. A man completely untethered from Christian theology, but firmly planted in the disciplines of science. A man who is able to weave the essence of his disciplines into the biblical story. A man who is able to show that what the biblical story proclaims has always been proclaimed by the created and emerging worlds.That the very force of life, even the evolutionary force propelling man upward towards the highest goal is the voice of God. A voice that presents itself in the biblical text, a text which may itself have been brought forth and propelled into form by that same force, as the spirit of upward movement.“Does God exist for Noah?” Peterson asks. “Does Noah believe?” And Peterson quickly corrects us, implying that the question is wrong. “Here is the situation, properly construed,” Peterson tells us, “God is for Noah by definition what guides him, what seizes him, and he makes his way forward, no matter what he decides to do.”Which does not quite get it, because the text does not equivocate on the matter. “And God said unto Noah.” Genesis 6:13. There is no misunderstanding the text. There is a professed communication from outside of time and space. This is a communication that happened between a transcendent God living outside of space and time, speaking to a man who lived in space and time.That this communication could be translated or applied into Christian thought more usefully in the manner which Peterson has it, namely a situation which is more reachable to most people. Fine and good, but why mangle the original structure of the text? This would be the Christian objection. My inclination is to believe that the result may not be desirable in the long run.Yet here is the problem. Peterson is closer to the truth than those who profess an undying allegiance to the text. That is the issue, and is the reason I read Peterson. The man speaks the truth. What Peterson has to say about the old testament stories should be required teaching in every church.Take the account of creation itself. Peterson tells us how we are to bring forth in the same spirit, in conjunction with the spirit of God, fruitful things in our own lives. That each man and woman in their own work is required to move forward by their best possible endeavor towards that which they know and can aim at.Peterson says, “The first two humans beings, and men and women in general, are avatars of God himself, with God as the creative spirit that calls order into being from chaos and possibility, and man and woman as a microcosm of that spirit, similar or even identical in essence, charged with forever reiterating the creative process. A more optimistic conception of humanity could hardly be imagined.”That the spirit of man has been set in the highest place. Namely it has been placed over the spirit of nature.Peterson says, “If nature is placed above man, such that every brook has its transcendent spirit, then man, woman, and child share by necessity place below nature. This might mean in principle that the wonders of the environment would become rightly valued. In practice, however, it all too often means instead that human beings are given no more shrift than weeds or rats. This inversion of value enables not so much the stewardship of the earth as the exploitation by exactly the sorts of people who eternally step forward to abuse such advantage.”The story of the fall is explored in great and brilliant detail and is woven into the disciplines Peterson already knows. In this he is the master unparalleled. That of bringing the story told by the sciences into the biblical text.Peterson says of the garden with its one forbidden tree, “The finite and known is surrounded by the infinite and unknown. The former cannot subsume the latter, if it tries, overextending itself, it risks perishing. It is necessary, even crucial, to understand: the periphery, the margin, is not merely a singular antithesis to the one at the center, nor its opposite, as is commonly presumed. The opposite of the one is not the other but the many, and then the innumerable, and then the monstrous, and then the inconceivable, and the utter chaos that is worse than death.”Peterson has the reasons for the fall down pat. He says of the woman, “The temptation that eternally confronts the woman, therefore, is the idea that maternal benevolence can be pridefully extended to the entire world, to even the most poisonous of snakes…Maternal compassion is the spirit of the feminine, bestowed on the individual woman. It is not something to take pride in, as it is not, as such, an individual accomplishment. It is instead something that can be invited in to possess and the must be regarded in humility as a gift from God—a talent bestowed, rather than a flag of virtue to be presumptuously and self-servingly paraded.”Of Adam Peterson says, “There is a corresponding and equally deadly sin of Adam—the fundamental temptation or flaw of the masculine, the proclamation to Eve: “I can incorporate, master, name and subdue, and put into proper order anything that you bring before me, no matter how overreaching, preposterous, or even outright deadly the presumption that is be included.” All to impress Eve, as men do so often impress women….God help us truly in the face of our prideful compassion and false confidence.”And so it goes throughout the book. If you hear such things preached in your church, you are one of the truly rare people left in Christianity, and so is your pastor for speaking the truth. As for Peterson? I have this sneaking suspicion that there are few in our current age worthy of untying his shoe strings.

We Who Wrestle With God by Dr. Jordan Peterson delves into the biblical narrative and explores how the stories we live by shape our understanding of the divine and our highest purpose. This book is rich in substance and depth, making its content a challenging yet rewarding exploration. Since the book discusses how stories influence human behavior, perhaps we can begin by reflecting on a story.Let’s start with the pen I hold in my hand. Its position is not just a physical reality but is connected to the potential actions I might take with it. In my mind, I envision various ways this pen could be used, none of which have yet occurred, but all of which are possible. These potential actions exist in the metaphysical realm of my imagination—abstract and untapped in the physical world. Now, let’s consider the hierarchy of these possibilities. At the top of this hierarchy lies the most noble and highest good. If I were to use this pen to write inspiring literature, for example, it could help bring myself and others closer to the divine—an all-loving and all-powerful Creator.Being made in God’s image, we are called to communicate with the divine, and in doing so, God reveals Himself to us. In such moments, we may be able to fulfill the righteous will of the Prime Mover, the ultimate cause of all effects in this world. When others who seek this same divine connection write, we may find common threads in our work. This shared pursuit often leads to stories that illustrate the consequences of failing to align with the divine, or highlight the call to adventure and the leadership required to pursue this higher purpose.Through the words of various authors, cultures across time and space might center around similar themes, despite differences in their languages and traditions. Stories that place the love of creation and the Creator at their core become a powerful means of connecting with others. These stories continue to inspire future generations to carry forth the creative endeavor. All of this emerges from the simple act of writing with a pen, illustrating how the pen can indeed be mightier than the sword.Throughout We Who Wrestle With God, Dr. Peterson emphasizes the biblical importance of maintaining a connection with God and aligning ourselves with His will. He highlights the inevitable strife faced by those who stray from this path. In Genesis, we see the fall of man, which exposes the Luciferian pride of both Adam and Eve. Adam’s pride stems from overestimating the capabilities of humanity, believing we can bend reality to our own will. This concept echoes Dr. Thomas Sowell’s work in A Conflict of Visions, where Sowell contrasts those with an unconstrained vision—who believe they are unbound by physical or metaphysical limitations—with those who hold a constrained vision, grounded in the righteousness of God’s will. For those with a constrained vision, freedom operates within a moral framework.Eve’s flaw, on the other hand, represents the consequences of excessive compassion and tolerance, particularly when that tolerance extends to things that should be cut off. This reminds me of the paradox of intolerance. In a society that embraces moral relativism, where truth and values are fluid, the definition of “intolerance” can become subjective and evolve with the preferences of the dominant group. This paradox risks fostering authoritarianism, as tolerance can be weaponized to suppress dissent or opposition. When enforced by the state or powerful institutions, such as universities, it can stifle diversity of thought, thereby undermining the very openness it was intended to protect. The more forced tolerance is, the more likely it is to lead to a totalitarian state, where dissent is labeled intolerant and suppressed.We then turn to the story of Abraham, who hears the call of God to embark on a higher purpose—leaving his comfort behind to fulfill a divine mission. This story reminds me of the innate intelligence within us. In a scientific sense, innate intelligence refers to the genetic code and neurophysiological processes that drive the development of an individual. Neurologically, an individual’s drives manifest externally through action, which in turn influences the brain’s physiology, leading to the formation of new neurological connections. The stress of pursuing a goal prompts the body’s adaptation to the challenge.Higher-order thinking, achieved through the development of the prefrontal cortex, is crucial when crafting visions of our future selves. Do we aim for the highest good, as Abraham did, responding to the divine call? Or, as Moses did, do we rise to leadership in the community, guiding the people through adversity? The Israelites' journey in the wilderness reveals the continual struggle to stay connected to the highest calling. This brings to mind Aristotle’s view on the importance of character, which is developed through practice and habit. Virtue, for Aristotle, isn’t just a matter of intellectual knowledge; it is cultivated through repeated action, becoming second nature. In a community, this constant alignment with the highest ideal is necessary to prevent individuals from straying and worshiping false idols.The story of Jonah also illustrates a crucial point. When Jonah is called by God to save a people, even those who may seem like enemies, he initially resists the call and falls into a sleep representing a state of unconsciousness, a withdrawal from the higher purpose. This resonates with a verse from Matthew 12:43-45:“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”This verse emphasizes the importance of staying connected to the transcendent, especially as we climb the ladder of success. If a person achieves worldly success—organizing their life and rising in stature—but lacks a transcendent guiding narrative, they risk falling into corruption. Without objective moral guidance, subjective whims can take over, leading to self-destruction. This is seen not only in individuals but in entire societies. Totalitarian regimes based on secular ideals often end in catastrophe, as the absence of a higher moral framework leads to oppression and violence.So, what is the answer to this predicament? The answer is to maintain a connection to the transcendent through faith. The image of the impure spirit seeking rest in dry places contrasts with the life-giving force of the Holy Spirit, associated with water. Jonah’s escape from the depths, symbolized by the whale, represents the potential for redemption and rescue. In the face of destruction, the call to maintain faith and fulfill a higher purpose is what enables us to overcome the challenges of life, just as Jonah did.In conclusion, while the Creator is an omnipotent, unchanging source of perfect good, humanity, in contrast, is capable of corruption. This capacity for corruption is evident in the fall of man in Genesis, where Adam’s decision to turn away from God introduced original sin into the world. As a result, we are born with an awareness of evil and suffering, but this does not mean humanity is inherently evil. Rather, we are inherently good as God's creation, and it is only through our own choices that we embrace wickedness. Hell on earth manifests when we praise wicked acts as good and condemn the creation of an all-loving God as evil.However, the good news is that the nature of God is such that He can bring good out of evil. In fact, evil itself can highlight the value of good, as we come to appreciate what is righteous more fully by recognizing the depths of wickedness from which we can turn away. The hope for humanity lies in the new covenant with God through Christ, who came into the world through the Virgin Mary. By being born outside the bloodline of Adam, Christ, as both the Son of God and the Son of Man, offers freedom from original sin. He is the Word made flesh, embodying the divine nature, and through His sinless life and sacrificial death, He provides a pathway to redemption.Christ's sacrifice on the cross offers grace—the fundamental difference between the redeemed and the lost. While God's justice would rightfully condemn us all, it is through His mercy, by grace, that we are saved and enabled to choose righteousness. The resurrection of Christ demonstrates that death holds no power over Him, and through His victory, His followers are promised eternal life. Thus, while humanity is marked by its fallibility, the hope for restoration is found in the grace of God, who, through Christ, offers the redemption of all who turn toward Him.