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 EXERPT FROM "JORDON PETERSON'S GOD"

Jordon Peterson’s God

Peterson’s reading of Scripture takes aspects of its analogies seriously but misses much of what is really going on in it. If the God of Holy Scripture really exists, nothing less than a Copernican Revolution in our existential understanding must occur. In a world ordered around the living God revealed in Jesus Christ, forgiveness, grace, thanksgiving, dependency, devotion, worship, and prayer take on a completely new aspect and transform our lives. Whatever its merits, Peterson’s project would need to be rebuilt on a new basis to reckon with such a revolution.

Jordan Peterson is an especially vivid example of one who feeds upon the Christian story as myth, while not believing it as fact. He is far from alone, and though We Who Wrestle with God is not a true Christian reading of Holy Scripture, it represents an encouraging trend of serious thinkers recognizing the vital cultural significance of the Bible. This trend may be a much-needed beachhead for the evangelization of righteous pagans—and a spur to Christians to return to a spiritual reading of Holy Scripture. In myth, as Lewis recognized, meaning is encountered neither as abstract nor as bound to the particular, but as reality. And in the Incarnation, myth and fact are joined.

Written by: Alastair Roberts is adjunct senior fellow at the Theopolis Institute.

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