Jesus is an Anomaly!
Last spring we read The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. In this book, Campbell presents the idea of the monomyth, when examined the myths of different cultures are all essentially the same including the multi-stage journey that every hero takes.[1] Another book read was Matthew Petrusek’s Evangelization and Ideology. Petrusek discusses the conceptual maps of moral reasoning which includes theology, ontology, anthropology, epistemology, morality, applied morality and politics.[2] He suggests that a solid foundation for a conceptual map must be established first or the world will tumble down. In doing an inspectional reading of Jordan Peterson’s book The Maps on Meaning, it appears that Peterson combines the ideas found in Campbell and Petrusek’s books to describe how to make sense of the world around us.[3]
Peterson begins his book by making the following assertion.
“The world can be validly construed as a forum for action and a place of things. The former manner of interpretation—more primordial, and less clearly understood—finds its expression in the arts or humanities, in ritual, drama, literature and mythology. The world as forum for action is a place of value, a place where all things have meaning. . . . The latter manner of interpretation—the world as a place of things—finds its formal expression in the methods and theories of science. . . . No complete world-picture can be generated without use of both modes of construal.”[4]
For this post, I chose to focus on Chapter 4, “The Appearance of an Anomaly,”[5] Peterson suggests anomalies are essential for the healthy individual and societal adaptation.[6] Peterson discusses four forms of anomalies, the strange, the stranger, the strange idea, and the revolutionary hero, I believe we see Jesus as the stranger, sharing the strange idea and being the revolutionary hero. Since the strange deals more with environmental changes through natural causes this does not necessarily apply to Jesus.
Peterson writes, “every society shares a moral viewpoint, which is essentially an identity composed of unquestioned fidelity to a particular conception of “reality” (what is and what should be), and of agreement upon the nature of those behaviors that may be reasonably manifested.[7] What was this identity or kingdom into which Jesus was born? The Roman empire ruled what was once the nation of Israel and the surrounding lands. The Romans were ruled by Caesar, who was thought to be the “son of God.”[8] Yet the Jews recognized Yahweh as the One God who revealed Himself to their ancestors centuries earlier. They still sought to worship him and obey the over 600 commandments that dictated almost every aspect of their behavior. This is the what is of their reality. Their what should be consisted of looking toward the future to where God himself would come as Messiah and “rule and reign as Israel’s king.”[9]
The scriptures suggest that when Jesus began his public ministry around the age of thirty, he was relatively unknown.[10] While having a Jewish human ancestry, he was a stranger to people including the Jewish leaders.[11] When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (Palm Sunday) Matthew records “the whole city was stirred and asks ‘Who is this?’”[12]This made him a threat as his behavior was seen as unpredictable and threatened the existing social hierarchy.[13] Not only were his behaviors an issue (i.e. healing on the sabbath, eating with tax collectors and other sinners), but he also went about teaching, strange ideas; Peterson suggests “a new idea is an abstract stranger.”[14] The New Testament details many of Jesus’s teachings. It is suggested that Matthew recorded a summary of his teachings in what is referred to as “The Sermon on the Mount.”[15] Through the use of parables and metaphors Jesus presented his picture of the coming Kingdom of God. We read in the New Testament that many of Jesus’ teachings upset the religious leaders. Peterson writes ““An entire behavioral hierarchy can be undermined by a well-chosen creative phrase, because the phrase brings with it, as integral part of an integrated whole, moral presuppositions of entirely different, and perhaps logically (or at least apparently) contrary nature.”[16] Through his teaching, Jesus was calling into question the current ideas of what was expected of them, their view of God, and his coming kingdom.
Jesus is ultimately what Peterson calls “The Revolutionary Hero.”[17] He is the “agent of change,” yet he is exceedingly threatening to those completely encapsulated by the status quo, and who are unable or unwilling to see where the present state of adaptation is incomplete and where residual danger lies.”[18] Jesus “in taking creative action [the culminating action was his death on the cross], he “(re)encounters chaos [death], generates new myth predicated behavioral strategies [i.e. love of enemy, lay down life for a friend], and extends the boundaries of cultural competence” becomes the revolutionary hero.[19] “You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than the whole nation perish.”[20]
When we examine the four anomalies, we begin to understand why the religious leaders of Jesus’ day sought to kill him. The leaders, identified with the devil, rejected the unknown and sought to maintain the status quo that dictated the beliefs and behaviors of the Jewish people.[21] In reading Peterson’s book we also begin to understand the importance of exploring the unknown, including anomalies. Having only done an inspectional reading of his book, there are many other concepts he presents that I would love to explore.
Allow me to conclude with the lyrics of a song titled “The Gentle Healer” by Michael Card. I believe that the word Gentle Healer could be replaced with Stranger.
The Gentle Healer came into our town today
He touched blind eyes and the darkness left to stay
But more than the blindness, He took their sins away
The Gentle Healer came into our town today
The Gentle Healer came into our town today
He spoke one word, that was all He had to say
And the one who had died just rose up straight away
The Gentle Healer came into our town today
Oh, He seems like just an ordinary man
With dirty feet and rough, but gentle hands
But the words He says are hard to understand
And yet, He seems like just an ordinary man
The Gentle Healer, He left our town today
I just looked around and found He’d gone away
Some folks from town had followed Him, they say
That the Gentle Healer is the Truth, The Life, The Way[22]
[1] Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces 2 ed. (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1973).
[2] Matthew Petrusek, Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture, (Park Ridge, IL: Word on Fire, 2023.
[3] Jordan B. Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief, (New York, NY: Routledge, 1999).
[4] Peterson, 1.
[5] Peterson, 233-306.
[6] Peterson, xxi.
[7] Petrson, 256.
[8] N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why It Matters, (New York: (Harper One, 2011),29.
[9] Wright, 50.
[10] Luke 3:23 (NIV).
[11] Jesus’ ancestry is recorded in Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38.
[12] Matthew 21:10 (NIV).
[13] Peterson, 250.
[14] Peterson, 251; Mark 2:13-17, and Mark 3: 1-6 (NIV)
[15] “Sermon on the Mount E1: Kicking Off the Year,” hosted by Jon Collins and Michelle Jones, on The Bible Project, January 1, 2024. https://bibleproject.com/podcast/kicking-year-sermon-mount. The Sermon on the Mount is found in Matthew 5-7.
[16] Peterson, 253.
[17] Peterson, 271.
[18] Peterson, 271.
[19] Peterson, 278.
[20] John 11:50 (NIV).
[21] Peterson, xxi.
[22] Michael Card, “The Gentle Healer,” track 3 on The Life, Disc 2, 1988, CD.
About the Author
Jeff Styer
Jeff Styer lives in Northeast Ohio's Amish Country. He has degrees in Social Work and Psychology and currently works as a professor of social work at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Jeff is married to his wife, Veronica, 25+ years. Together they have 4 beautiful children (to be honest, Jeff has 4 kids, Veronica says she is raising 5). Jeff loves the outdoors, including biking, hiking, camping, birding, and recently picked up disc golf.12 responses to “Jesus is an Anomaly!”
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Thanks Jeff. The Hero monomyth is everywhere we look these days :). In your view, how might reframing Jesus as ‘The Stranger’ or ‘The Revolutionary Hero’ help modern believers better navigate cultural resistance or personal crises of faith today?”
Glyn,
Thanks for the question. I think remembering that Jesus was a stranger among his people and the impact that he made through discipling 12 men can greatly encourage us. I am reading N. T. Wright’s Simply Jesus and he explains the culture that Jesus was born into. When we understand the cultural history that Jesus had to transform, the resistance we receive is minimal. Regarding a crisis of faith, again if we consider that Jesus was a stranger with a strange idea and the amount of physical and spiritual resistance he received, we can be comforted in knowing our crisis of faith is a normal part of the spiritual resistance we are fighting. Also, as the Revolutionary Hero, which Peterson states serves as a guide, Jesus does not leave us as orphans but gives us the Holy Spirit to journey with us. As we face resistance or a crisis of faith, we know that, as Peterson would say, Jesus has “been there and done that” (page 273).
Thanks Jeff for your great post. Does this work relate to your NPO at all? If so, how?
Ryan
My NPO is dealing with pornography and working toward educating Christian college students about the negative effects and/or developing an accountability (or identity) group to assist students in the quest to stop using pornography. Therefore, given the messages that our mainstream culture has toward pornography, yes, I believe what I will present may be a strange idea.
Hi Jeff, great post.
How does Peterson’s concept of “The Revolutionary Hero” apply to Jesus, particularly in terms of creative action and cultural transformation?
Shela,
The short answer is that Jesus is our guide. Peterson wrote “the shaman [in this case Jesus] is there to serve as guide, to provide rationale for current experience, to reunite the suffering individual with his community or to renew the community–to restabilize the paradigmatic contexts of expectation and desire within which individual and social experience remains tolerable [cultural transformation]. The truly creative individual [Jesus] has ‘been there, done that,’ and can therefore serve as a guide to others voluntarily beginning –or roughly thrown into–similar voyages” (page 273).
Hi Jeff, thanks for your thoughts on Jesus as the anomaly. I didn’t get to dive into this chapter – but I am curious if he talked at all about negative anomalies? For example, when you expect people to be good (like a group of Christians) but then there is one who betrays and you never saw it coming? As I’m writing this, I’m reminded of both the historical event and narrative of Judas – he was an anomaly amongst the disciples.
Christy,
I did not see where Peterson directly discussed a negative anomaly. Peterson might suggest that to begin with all anomalies are negative as they are going counter to the existing culture. Ultimately many Strangers and Strange ideas are rejected by others, which is for the betterment of the society. The danger exists when the negative anomaly (like Judas or others in history) gains influence. I think you will see this in our next book – The Parasitic Mind and Hicks postmodernism book. There are several strange ideas that are gaining influence that might not benefit society.
Hi Jeff, thanks for this great blog. Given your current job situation and NPO work, I wonder if there is an area of your own life that Jesus is inviting you to reimagine or gently disrupt?
Thanks for the question Kari. My coach has essentially asked me the same question. I am supposed to pray weekly about this. At this point in time, I believe I am not called to gently disrupt things but to be a source of stability in our University’s time of change and transition. We have so many people leaving, some did not have their contracts renewed, others are leaving because of the current leadership. In regard to a reimagined life, I am somewhat open to that, there are parameters that I have verbalized would need to be met. Things that for the sake of my health/mental health and family would have to exist.
Jeff,
How might the Gentle Healer and the Revelutionary Hero be connected? It almost seems like there should be a disconnect with the two phrases but I wonder how you might connect them?
Adam,
Looking at how Peterson describes the Revolutionary Hero, I would say the connection between the revolutionary hero and the Gentle Shepherd are their actions. Both engage in words and actions that disrupt the status quo. Raising the dead is not part of the status quo and Jesus’s words were very hard to understand and at the same time challenging.