Jordan Peterson’s blinkered reading of the Bible does his cause no favours
, the prolific Canadian psychologist turned lifestyle sage. The temptation is to respond not to the work but the person : irascible, derisive, uncompromising, contrarian. But here, the work itself poses problems; it is a sprawling, repetitive text that could have done with some ruthless editing.
There is the social pressure to adjust, not to reality itself, but to fashionable orthodoxies – particularly around gender fluidity, racial sensitivities, the reluctance to call people to responsibility for their actions. And there is the internal pressure of a self-serving, sentimental quest for low-cost answers to challenges of moral significance – false compassion, over-identification with the supposedly vulnerable, cheap indulgence of the surface wants of self and others.
The second point is connected. Peterson’s readings are curiously like a medieval exegesis of the text, with every story really being about the same thing: an austere call to individual heroic integrity. This is a style of interpretation with a respectable pedigree. Early Jewish and Christian commentators treated the lives of Abraham and Moses as symbols for the growth of the spirit, paradigms for how a person is transformed by the contemplation of eternal truth.
In fairness, he does pick out some distinct trajectories within the stories, for example, in the narratives about Moses, tracing a thread from Moses’s call to exercise a lonely and liberating witness to the resistance of the people to the freedom they are offered, and the repeated pattern of regression into infantilism. But the expositions constantly shade into meandering polemic about a range of modern issues, especially gender, on which Peterson has made his position pretty clear elsewhere.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
We Who Wrestle With God by Jordan Peterson review – a return to God… by way of the Brothers Grimm and The Lion KingThe Canadian psychologist’s zealous exegesis of the Bible as a moral rulebook for life is long-winded and out of touch
Read more »
Will Jordan try helps New Zealand pull away as Ireland’s home run fizzles outNew Zealand pulled clear in the second half to record a 23-13 Autumn Nations Series win and end Ireland’s unbeaten run in Dublin
Read more »
Australians Alex de Minaur and Jordan Thompson bow out of Paris Masters final eightAlex de Minaur holds on to a shot at the ATP Finals despite bowing out to Holger Rune at the Paris Masters.
Read more »
Alex de Minaur, Jordan Thompson both earn quarterfinals spots at Paris MastersAlex de Minaur has provisionally moved into the world's top eight players in the race for the ATP Finals in Turin as both he and late-bloomer Jordan Thompson win to reach Paris Masters quarterfinals.
Read more »
Trial in subway killing of Jordan Neely to begin in New YorkDaniel Penny, 24, a former US Marine, had held the Michael Jackson impersonator in a chokehold over perceived threat
Read more »
Israel must stop ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza, Jordan tells USJordanian foreign secretary warns ‘we stand at brink of regional war’ as he meets Antony Blinken in London
Read more »