Is it time for Jordan Peterson to declare his spiritual allegiance?

Alan Isler’s novel Clerical Errors (2001) features a troubled priest who mocks the faith he has largely abandoned. ‘How can any rational creature not see in the story of Christ the pattern of countless pagan myths, the universal romance of the sacrificial god, his apotheosis and his rebirth?’ Jordan Peterson’s new book stands this argument on its head. That core Old Testament and gospel narratives are echoed in other cultures, past or present, is hailed as a mark of biblical universality. What applies to the resurrection also covers themes including sibling rivalry (Cain and Abel), pride and overreach (Noah’s Flood), deliverance from slavery (the Exodus) and the Fall itself. These archetypes abide in our collective unconscious for good reason. 

Peterson ranks as one of the world’s most contentious as well as best known public intellectuals. Despite its title, though, We Who Wrestle With God is less combative than the author’s earlier work. Many who are either cheered or outraged by the bracingly conservative medicine he has offered for western social ills may be surprised by this move to religious terrain. A Jungian psychologist by background, he is neither a preacher nor a textual scholar – nor even a professing Christian, as far as one can judge. But perhaps it is this lack of obvious credentials that gives Peterson’s biblical commentary its cut-through.

The second strand in his career is in any case less novel than it may seem. He has been expounding scripture in person and online to fast-growing audiences for several years. His YouTube seminars on the Book of Exodus – stimulating but quirky affairs, in which he tends to hog the limelight during what are meant to be group discussions – have reached an audience of millions. He can also fill vast venues for unscripted talks, displaying levels of vim far exceeding those of most church leaders.