Jordan Peterson, God and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life

A very kind blog reader sent me this as an Easter gift. Honestly the best thing about it was the really nice note that was included.

I dipped into Jordan Peterson's video series a while back to see what all the fuss was about and found his reasoning very compelling. I was interested that a Jungian psychotherapist seemed to draw all the right conclusions from a close reading of the book of Genesis. Naturally, I've seen many references to Peterson and liked the idea that he has particularly caught the attention of young men who look to his insights for guidance in their lives. In our age of "diversity" this group has been almost deliberately overlooked.

Most of all I wondered how Peterson's conclusions stacked up against a Christian reading of the same scripture and traditions. I wasn't so interested in that question that I was going to watch all of his presentations though. That is why I was delighted when this book came out which does just that. It lived up to its promise in spades.

The authors go through Peterson's 12 rules of life from the book of the same name, look at his reasoning and conclusions, and then compare them to Christian thought. It is amazing how much Peterson gets right, showing that if one has a logical, well trained mind then scripture is not an archaic, impenetrable text as some critics allege. 

More than anything, I admire Peterson's dedication to following lines of thinking through to their logical conclusion, even when it leads to some hard truths. When his thinking goes astray, it is because he is not taking God into the equation, as the authors show time and again.

This makes for fascinating reading. Not only do we see the truths of Christianity from an outside view, but we see where Christianity provides the fullness of truth when God is included (as, indeed, he must be). The authors also take a look at Peterson's later book Beyond Order. Finally, there is a transcript of a 2019 conversation between Peterson and Bishop Robert Barron which makes a perfect ending.

Highly recommended.