{"id":34043,"date":"2023-11-10T09:36:25","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T17:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=34043"},"modified":"2023-11-10T09:36:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T17:36:25","slug":"construct-meaning-around-eternal-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/construct-meaning-around-eternal-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"Construct Meaning Around Eternal Infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the book Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief<\/em>, Jordan Peterson takes the reader on his journey in making sense of his own life choices along with the world events that surrounded him as he grew up (predominantly the Cold War and the threat of nuclear warfare)[1]<\/a>. His observations, musings, and research led him to the idea that beliefs make the world\u201d[2]<\/a>. By that he seems to mean that the belief systems and value systems that we hold to (i.e. religion) influence not only how we see the world but how we act in the world and create reality itself.[3]<\/a> All these different belief systems would seem to clash, but Peterson posits that universal moral absolutes can be discovered by examining myths and images in what he calls \u201ccomparative mythological material\u201d.[4]<\/a> The three parts of the world is differentiated between the known and unknown and the navigation between those is the most important for humanity.[5]<\/a> I\u2019m curious how this plays out because different cultural interpretations of these three facets have led to radically different ways of thinking and modes of being. Peterson, while he acknowledges there are differences, seems to mostly hint at Christian images and themes while also refusing to dive deeper into any of them.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some truth to Peterson\u2019s idea of how humans create meaning. I admit that reading his book was a chore in part because I find his internet presence to be a nuisance. Who he has become does at least seem to have grown out what he believed even when he wrote this book. Building on Jung\u2019s idea of persona, <\/em>he rids himself of the social norms and education that he had learned and put his identity in over time. Instead he has taken the base desire that people have to do (or at least say) whatever they want and given it a psychologists OK.[6]<\/a> I will admit that perhaps I\u2019m not understanding Peterson correctly. His style of writing, and perhaps the immensity of what he is writing about, were hard to follow and almost unnecessarily dense. In the midst of that density and maybe obfuscation, he did seem to drop some nuggets that even if they are not totally original, are still worth mulling over.<\/p>\n

Speaking of disruptions of the infinite unknowns into our idea of known and familiar ways acting, Peterson says our \u201cinstinctive response drives learning – particularly, but not exclusively, the learning of appropriate behavior. All such learning takes place \u2013 or took place originally \u2013 as a consequence of contact with novelty, or anomaly.”[7]<\/a> If something breaks the way we\u2019ve ordered our world and\/or our lives, we have to reorder it to accommodate the new thing. At its very core that is learning, adding to the world that we know whether it is a new object or new meaning. Even here there are shades of Christianity. Paul, in Romans 5, states that \u201cwe rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God\u2019s love has been poured into our hearts\u2026\u201d[8]<\/a>. Suffering, as Paul seems to imply further into the chapter, is a slow death of the things we once identified with (Adam), and a reordering toward a life in Christ. In that, perhaps we don\u2019t have to wait for sufferings to come to us in the traditional sense, but perhaps we can find ways to break out of our current methods and means of doing things (repent), or at least soften the barriers of our known world (humility) and make this process less hurtful and disorienting. The key however, should be not just reorienting to whatever works for us, but perhaps around the infrastructure of love, for God and others, along with the fruits of the Spirit.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Jordan Peterson, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief<\/em> (London: Rutledge, 1999), 7.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid, 13.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid, 13.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, 13.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid, 14.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid, 10.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid, 28.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Rom 5:3-5<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Gal 5:22-23<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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