Jordan Peterson’s Dangerous Misunderstanding of the Christian Faith
In a lecture delivered in Sydney, Dr. Jordan Peterson tries to answer the frequently asked question about his faith. At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be a wrong answer to this question — you will probably know, what you believe in…
Nevertheless, as a believer, I disagree with his answer. To understand this criticism, we must first gain clarity about the concept of the Christian faith.
Faith — an Attempt at a Personal Explanation
Do I believe or do I just imagine?
The question of my faith often brought me to the point of despair. Testing my faith for vitality in the way of a pulse measurement never led to good results. Faith can not be measured nor derived. You can not force faith.
I realized only recently that the difficulties I had in answering the question, have their root cause in my lack of understanding of what faith constitutes. What do I mean when I speak of faith?
A look at the lexicon reveals that the Middle High German origin of the word believe is the word gelouben. Among other things, the word pledge is a direct derivation of this old verb. So the meaning seems to be associated with a bond that one enters actively and deliberately.
But what do we bind ourselves to and, above all, why?
The Two Sides of Faith
John 20, 29 — Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
Unfortunately, my life does not consist of a series of experiences of God. But experiences have to be experienced. They exist only for the moment. The memory of an experience is not the same as the experience itself. For the faith, this means that even the most intense experience of God’s closeness fades in memory and the doubt whether it is nothing but wishful thinking, can gain the upper hand.
The experience of God is central to my faith. However, it can not fully describe it. I want to hold on to this experience, I’m no more able to do this than Mary Magdalene could hold on to Jesus:
John 20, 17 — Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father
A little side note: Is it enough for you to know that a loved person (in and of itself) exists or would you like to see him or her more often?
One of my best friends asked me more than once the question of what distinguishes the Bible from any other exciting, good book. He did not doubt that the Bible has to tell us a lot and is the source of countless valuable ethical rules. But there are some good books of this kind out there.
In the pursuit of understanding my faith, an answer has emerged. The ethical guidelines of the Bible give us orientation in the seemingly God-forsaken world when we lack the experience of God. However, the center of the biblical texts is God. Without God, the rules are no longer valuable, but worthless in the deepest sense. Without God, the Bible is indeed replaceable by any other ethical book.
The Bible is not a founding work of an ideology. Their texts are not universally valid but must be reconsidered for each situation individually. Deriving a direct guide to action for all possible situations from the rules of the Bible in a kind of mental exercise is not feasible for the believer. Rather, the believer hopes that in the concrete situation, a sentence of the Bible will have a concrete meaning and thus contributes to decision- making. So the believer hopes for God’s (holy) spirit and not that his life will be regulated by the words of a book.
The Bible is not God’s Word, but it can become God’s Word.
When we read the Bible, we open the door for God. That’s why the bible demands to be studied. From us Christians, it demands that we take it more seriously than any other book — also and especially if we do not experience God’s nearness. That’s our part of the faith.
The meaning of the word faith is thus divided into two parts. On the one hand, it is justified trust, which comes from the experience of the nearness of God. On the other hand, faith also means the naivety that small children bring to their parents — whom they absolutize, as we should do only with God.
If Dad says so, then it is true!
We have God’s promise that this childlike trust will not be in vain.
You Will Seek Me and Find Me
Jeremiah 29, 13 — when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you
True faith does not come out of us but into us. A Believer is called the one who experienced this and has made a conscious decision for God.
Seeking God, if we do not see him, trusting in God, if he does not seem to be there, reading the Bible, even though we doubt that it has to tell us more then certain psychological findings — that is the active part of the faith. But without the experience of the nearness of God, this so important part will soon degenerate into pure superstition and preoccupation with ourselves.
The experience of God — the passive part of faith — is the foundation and goal of the active part.
This answers the initial question of the why of the faith. I believe because I have experienced God’s closeness. But faith itself includes my response to God:
Lord, I vow to you loyalty!
This includes the realization that the times of absence of experiences are not times of unbelief.
I have learned that neither side of faith is viable alone in the long term. Only in this duality does faith become truly sustainable.
Markus 9, 24 — I believe; help my unbelief!
The final answer which I gave my friend on his question about the Bible, is the following:
Imagine that we Christians were right.
The Freedom of Faith
For centuries, the Church has misunderstood and abused faith. The notion of achievement that exists in every society, has been extended to the faith. I can earn God’s love was the fundamental precept. In the Middle Ages, you could even be freed from all your sins by paying money. God was the almighty judge, who then let himself be appeased if one did what the church leaders wanted. The relationship between God and man was that of a judge to a defendant.
Does a mother love one of her children more if he follows her well-intentioned advice more than the other? Or does she just suffer more because the naughty child will have a harder time in life?
Martin Luther has recognized that the relationship between God and man is a love affair. I recognize two things. For one thing, I faintly realize that I can’t come to God. I can not earn his recognition. Secondly, I recognize thankfully that God loves me. He comes to me. Opening the door for him and letting him enter is the only requirement to be fulfilled.
Luke 15, 20 — But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
The unmodern word sin is a relational word. Sin is everything that separates two who live in a relationship. The Easter message is God’s promise that, no matter how much we hurt him, how much he suffers from us, he will always be there for us. The forgiveness of all sins through the crucified Jesus is nothing less than the greatest declaration of love in the world. The lover can not come any closer to the loved one without pushing him.
This promise of God is the foundation for the liberation of the believer. It frees him from the idea of achievement. The believer does not have to be good. He does not pose as a saint above others. Completely freed from the fear:
What will the great judge say at the end?
the believer can devote himself entirely to life in the world. In the struggle for truth, he is therefore not blocked by thoughts of the consequences, this or that decision will have for him eventually. With the knowledge that wrong decisions, sins, are already forgiven, he can use his full potential to make as many right ones as possible.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letter to Eberhard Bethge, 21.7.1944
One must abandon every attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, a converted sinner, a churchman (the priestly type, so-called!) a righteous man or an unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one. This is what I mean by worldliness — taking life in one’s stride, with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness. It is in such a life that we throw ourselves utterly in the arms of God and participate in his sufferings in the world…
Experiences of God
It is intentional that I have not written anything about my experiences of God at any point in the text. Experiences are very subjective. I can not even say if, that which my brain makes out of the nerve signal from my eyes when they see the color red, is the same thing that any other human brain makes out of it. How much more difficult is it to convey a God experience?
My experiences of God are not a template for others. I can not claim:
This is what experiencing God looks like and nothing else.
Nevertheless, I don’t want to remain completely silent on the matter.
There is a basic trust in God, which is not of the same nature, as the active faith described above. It should be clear from the context that basic trust does not mean, that it is permanently there in the same intensity.
And then there are situations in which I have a sort of perspective that conveys a clarity which is neither rational nor otherwise justifiable. I then know what is right and wrong.
It is important to note that the distinction between right and wrong is different from the distinction between good and bad in that it is contextual in the narrowest sense. To say that something is wrong is fundamentally different from judging a person’s entire life. To prevent greater suffering, it may be right to kill a human being. Yet no one would speak here of a good deed! The struggle of the Hitler assassins with the fifth commandment is cited here as an example.
Peterson’s Statements
Let us go back to Peterson’s lecture in Sydney. In the beginning, he pointed out the problems involved in asking the question about one’s personal belief. What is the intention behind asking:
Do you believe in God?
Moreover, what are the implications of the statement:
I do believe!
Some people, Peterson criticized, would state I do believe and actually mean I am good. Then he arrives at a point, where he states, that it is almost impossible for a man to say the words: I do believe. By citing Nietzsche:
…there was only one Christ, and he died at the cross.
he eventually follows the wrong route of the philosopher and the medieval church. They believed that God’s recognition is something that must be earned.
As a Christian, I disagree! I say I do believe and I know very well, that this does not mean I am thoroughly good. In fact, both statements can not be said simultaneously.
Close to the end of the lecture, Peterson explains the benefits of confessing to faith. From a psychologist’s perspective there seem to be some good arguments for the lifestyle of a believer.
But again, I have to disagree! We can not convince ourselves to believe. We don’t come to God — God comes to us.
This does not mean that we are completely left out of the process. It is our task to actively decide in favor of the coming God. However, we do not make that decision based on weighing alternatives.
The only reason for the faith — and that distinguishes the believer from one who follows ethical guidelines — is God.
The Wrong Direction — Again
I grew up in the GDR and was brought up as an atheist. The teachers in my school tried to explain faith and how we will overcome it:
“In the past, people could not explain the physical world and have assigned gods to the inexplicable phenomena. So, e. g. the god Thor was the reason for lightning and thunder. But mankind grew up. These days we have science. Some people — the Christians — still struggle with the world and need to imagine their god. But science and socialism will make heaven on earth possible so that no one has to imagine a God any longer.”
Here we see the same wrong direction (man comes to God) as in the essence of Peterson’s explanations. Surely, he does not make a statement about the pure existence of God. But, at the end of the day, to him, it doesn’t seem to make any difference whether God exists or not. You just have to live your life as if he did exist.
The Most Dangerous God — I
Peterson’s statements are in opposition to the Christian faith. The highest wisdom at which a Christian can arrive is to know that he is (and will be) a sinner. There is a wonderful German poem by Wolfgang Borchert:
I want to be a lighthouse
in the night and the wind -
for cod and smelt -
for every boat
but I am myself
a ship in distress
The efforts to become better than we are, to burn the dead wood, are admirable. But, in the long run, this endeavor far exceeds our power. To say it with Paul:
2. Corinthians 12, 9 — But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Peterson is right, saying that the statement of the believer must have strong implications in his life. But judging the faith of a person by his actions reveals his misunderstanding of the faith itself.
He rightly points out that we have to take responsibility. Not society or anyone in particular is to blame for our misery — at least not in the first place. And trying to get better should be the goal for all of us. Still, this won’t bring us any closer to God. There is no way, in which we can come to the lord. Establishing the connection is his part.
On the other hand, turning ourselves into gods is one of the most dangerous things for ourselves and society. It is as destructive as absolutizing an ideology. No one is to absolutize but God alone! This is a fundamental part of the first commandment. It is highly probable that the reason for most of the suffering in history is that people tried to be God. In fact, from a biblical perspective, it is the reason we do not live in paradise. The original sin of Adam and Eve will be the topic of a whole article.
It is possible, that Peterson’s thoughts are much closer to mine than it appears. Human communication is a complicated and more than ambiguous issue. In the pursuit of truth, however, I have to assume the worst interpretation of his words.
Nevertheless, I do not doubt the good intentions in his statement:
I try to live as if God exists.
And those who agree with it may argue, that this is all we can do. Otherwise, we are fully helpless. But involving God in the sentence includes a dangerous solution to our helplessness. Reformulated, the statement reads as:
I know what is right or wrong! I do not need God for this. (And I am a little afraid he really exists.)
And here it is again — the original sin. And it is even worse. Adam and Eve still believed in God. They still listened to God. But, the statement as if God exists does not even care about God. The question of the faith is thus reduced to a purely philosophical question about the existence of a transcendent being (and the possible consequences).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Akt und Sein, postdoctoral thesis 1929
God does not exist — in and for itself!
God is a personal counterpart for every single person. As a Christian, I believe in the living Jesus. I believe that a word of the bible — a book thousands of years old — can come to life in a concrete situation. So, the question
Do you believe?
is not a question about the personal opinion on an undecidable issue. In the first place, it means
Did you experience the personal God?
Peterson’s Daemon
I do not know if Socrates’ famous Daimonion is the same as the inner voice of which Peterson speaks. However, I know the latter very well. As an almost objective observer, my inner voice looks underneath the surface of my words. It confronts me with the real reasons for my actions. It is a part, if not the center of myself.
On the other hand, the Holy Ghost is the way God communicates with us. Thus it is no part of us and should strongly be distinguished from the inner voice. And it is far from being permanently present. Not for nothing, is the Holy Ghost compared to the wind.
My Answer
My answer to the question of faith is momentous. I feel like someone walking through a forest in the twilight during a thunderstorm. Now and then there is a flash and I recognize my surroundings in a clear light. Most of the time, however, I have to choose between two different interpretations of my impressions of the world around me.
Is this an attacker who is standing right in front of me or someone who, like me, is largely helpless in this storm?
These two views represent two sides of myself. One driven by fear and anger and one that recognizes the other person as a child of God — just as I am.
In this way, Shoulder Angel and Shoulder Devil (in the Bible: Diabolus — the Slanderer) are playing their game with me and I have to decide whom I believe, over and over again.
I have experienced how much my life gets mixed up when I let myself be guided by fear and anger. And I have experienced the peace that settles in me when I look at others with a loving eye. I want to recognize my fellow humans as often as possible in the latter way. Due to my inner resistances, this is extremely exhausting. In the long term, it only seems possible when I experience the nearness of God. That’s why I pray:
I believe; help my unbelief!
