Prof. Jordan Peterson, psychologist, has become flavor of the decade for the conservative political right with his arguments of reason and logic that decimate the wooly theories of the prog-libs and cultural Marxist post modernists. The catalyst for his rise to prominence on social media was his refusal to indulge in the enforced terming of pronouns for the gender fluid. While in reality there are plenty of such sensible commentators about, it is to his good fortune that he has broken through into the public arena where others remain in relative obscurity – it’s not as if reason and logic have just been discovered – and those others are considered by the mainstream to be far right nutters or even religious nerds who are not willing disciples of the god of Cool. And that, – Cool – is the light in which Peterson is apparently being seen by, of all demographic groups, generation Z. A good thing as far as it goes.
The reasonable average Joe and even your mildly activist keyboard warrior knows bullshit when he or she sees it, but articulating their position so often falls short. Enter the appealing person of Jordan Peterson who has taken up their cudgel. Up to very recent times his crusade on behalf of the bourgeoisie has concentrated on social mores and public policy such as free speech, feminism, gender theory, culture, migration policies etc. But, of late, the revered professor has begun to make public his personal views on religion. He gives every appearance of being on a spiritual journey without defining his beliefs dogmatically. And it would appear that he is taking his cult following with him [and this is not to imply that he is aligned to, or starting a cult, for I could well have said his ‘fan base’]. Should these followers travel the whole journey with him and enjoy the benefit from a resultant truth which is Christian [for he is touted as being a Christian], then that ought be a good result. Peterson believes in God, in Jesus, the resurrection conditionally, and the bible for a start. Why then should I express concern?
Co-incidentally, I posted a YouTube video on facebook just yesterday of Peterson talking with Ben Shapiro and Dave Rubin and my comment displayed a concern that I had. As I put it, “He appears to be trying to re-invent the metaphysical wheel, and has not yet found his own answer to the perennial question of ‘Why Is There Not Nothing?'” I would have thought a champion of reasoned thinking might have come to some basic answer, albeit that he already is said to have faith, notwithstanding that, as I am too aware, faith and knowledge are developmental and beg to grow. I suggested too that he appeared to be much influenced by Jung and de Chardin. As circumstance would have it, last night my reading material included articles from The Federalist, and this article was one:
I quote:
“This, combined with his rhetorical approach and that his Canadian accent affects just enough of the exotic to tantalize Americans who assume profundity in such things, is exactly the stuff of a YouTube sensation. If that makes Christianity cool again, or helps skeptical Christians feel good and intellectual about the faith, that can’t be a bad thing. I guess.
More likely, however, Peterson is fostering our cultural Gnosticism. Consider his understanding of God, what he calls his first hypothesis: God is the abstraction of a human ideal formalized over millions of years of human development in the myths and teachings of any religion. Does an actual transcendent deity exist? Peterson leaves this “floating up in the air” (his words, in lecture one), something unfit for rational investigation.”
[The article itself, and the author, begs for critique. But I will leave that for now].
The article is lengthy and I found it disturbing as Gnosticism is antithetical to Christianity. Peterson is also an evolutionist of the type that denies the Catholic Christian doctrine that God created two sentient beings who sought the “knowledge” to be as gods and their sin bastardized the perfection of all things that God had created and so required redemption to be restored as a New Earth as we find in Christ. I fear that Peterson is going the New Age road of the “proud” who ignore the tenets established over thousands of years through Tradition, Revelation and the Bible and embarking on Teilhard’s road of “knowing the essence of God” as Adam sought to do, via the Cosmic Theology of either or both the collective unconscious or collective consciousness that culminates in the “Omega Point”. He is entitled to ruminate and embark on his journey but it is of concern that he is taking many thousands down a dubious road to a belief system that leads away from the very God being sought. I do wish he would stick with social commentary and not publicize his esoteric beliefs.
The substance of Gnosticism and the theories of Jung, of whom he is a devotee, are too much for this article but I refer readers to search the personalities and beliefs mentioned, and I recommend the article link above from The Federalist. Should a reader do so then I also refer him to look at the bio of Richard Noll too. Noll was a critic of Jung’s theories and wrote a relevant book. Prof. Peterson launched an attack on Noll, claiming that the book cover had Nazi images. It did not, and Peterson later issued an apology, so our hero is very touchy about his affinity to Jung.
We can know God here and now in various ways, experientially, by Grace, from Jesus words and actions, through prayer and so on. But, the Divine essence is indeterminate for humans, and were it not then there would be no need for faith or even maybe free will. Traditionally, theology concerning the knowability of God has been to define Him by what He is not, and somewhat by what He is, and it is only pride that thinks God can be discovered through esoteric knowledge. The temptation to eat of the tree of knowledge was too much for Adam, and it is still insistent for us. My hope is that a seemingly good man finds joy and peace for his soul in the truths of Jesus, and comes to know the efficacy of God’s Grace in his life because cosmic theology and Gnosticism denies the personal Father-God who has a real and tangible love for every soul he has created. I leave readers with just one of Peterson’s videos with his esoteric theories.
Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
