{"id":36871,"date":"2024-03-19T17:19:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T00:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=36871"},"modified":"2024-03-19T17:19:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T00:19:18","slug":"wisdom-is-the-redemptive-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wisdom-is-the-redemptive-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisdom is the Redemptive Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time I heard the name Jordan Peterson was in 2018. \u00a0Sitting in the back two rows of my Fall 2018 communication courses was a group of young men between the ages of 22-30 who found themselves enrolled in college after time serving in the military. \u00a0Several weeks into listening to their responses to basic communication theory and to their uncommon topics for argumentative speeches, I became curious and intentionally reached out to each one. \u00a0Over coffee or a walk, I discovered the many things the young men had in common besides their non-traditional ages and the military\u2013each one of them named Jordan Peterson as the author and speaker who gave them identity, hope and a reason to earn their degree. \u00a0Without delay, I read Peterson\u2019s book,\u00a012 Rules of Life: An Antidote for Chaos<\/span><\/em>,\u00a0before the semester came to an end which launched a rich dialogue among my students and myself. \u00a0Given our distaste for rules, I was surprised by how the young people who read Peterson hungered for rules\u2013or at least they were hungering for guidelines. Yet, they boldly explained to me the seemingly contradictory ideas on morality in which they were raised leaving them feeling chaotic, disoriented and uncertain. I laughed when I read the first rule and chapter title: \u201cStand up Straight with Your Shoulders Back.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Jordan Peterson\u2019s YouTube speeches and writings captured their imaginations\u2013and seemingly more important\u2013a new wisdom for life. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Book Jordan Peterson Wrote 20 Years Earlier<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

As I took time this week to read\u00a0Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief,<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>I found a very different approach to Peterson\u2019s thinking. In\u00a0Maps of Meaning<\/em>,<\/span>\u00a0he organizes his insights around universal themes of world mythology explaining how all cultures create stories to help us understand and ultimately \u201cmap\u201d the chaos into which we are all born. \u00a0Although not as straightforward as\u00a012 Rules<\/span>, Peterson seems to find solace while writing\u00a0Maps of Meaning<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>in declaring that \u201cwisdom is the redemptive knowledge.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 Two reflections I am taking from this seemingly stream of consciousness book are Suffering and Stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Suffering<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Victor Frankl, who writes about his time in a Nazi concentration camp, says this about suffering:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIf there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is\u00a0 an eradicable part of life, even as fate and death. Without suffering and death, human life cannot be complete\u201d[3]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rather than just write about suffering philosophically, Peterson synthesizes the meaning of mythology and our human need for story; he addresses the world as unexplored territory as metaphor for our beliefs and suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n

Expounding in great detail with the metaphor of a family, Peterson draws the picture of The Great Mother as nature, creative and destructive; The Great Father representing culture, protective and tyrannical yet cumulative wisdom; The Divine Son as the exploratory Word. By creating a Trinitarian model of the world as he perceives it, Peterson then explores the gift of the problem he was given: How can men do terrible things to one another? \u00a0I kept waiting for the author to address the problem of sin and suffering\u2013what I did find was that sin was used in the stories[4]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0he interspersed throughout the book. As I read over the book (not in-depth), I was left wondering what beliefs he held about heaven and hell, sin and suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stories<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s in his three levels of analysis within the first 200 pages of the book where Jordan Peterson relies on story as a map of meaning\u2013or as he writes, \u201ca strategy for emotional regulation and behavioral output.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 What captured my attention was Peterson\u2019s connection to stories and ideologies:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cStories are all ideologies. Ideologies are attractive, credulous, despite its skepticism\u2013particularly if those who embody or otherwise promote them allow the listener every\u00a0 opportunity to identify with the creative and positive characters of the story and to deny their association with the negative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading how all stories are powerful and dangerous ideologies, I was reminded of the book we read earlier this semester,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture<\/span><\/em>, where Petrusek and Collins focus on four Western secular political theories.<\/span>[6]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After reading about the ideologies, I experienced the ephemeral fear that often accompanies a discussion of politics. In reading Peterson this week, I see where that fear comes from. He states that ideological power stems from two things:<\/span><\/p>\n

1) Their incomplete but effective appropriation of myths; and \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2) Their attractiveness in combination with their incompleteness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wisdom<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jordan Peterson wrote\u00a0<\/span>Maps of Meaning<\/span><\/em>\u00a0with the driving question of How can men do terrible things to one another? I am left with more of a prayer than an answer to Peterson\u2019s search for meaning. \u00a0The Apostle James writes, \u201cWho is wise and understanding among you? Let them show by good conduct that their works are done in the meekness of wisdom.\u201d Peterson embodies much knowledge and I am grateful to him for speaking into the lives of the younger generation. \u00a0In the end, do we think Peterson has created his own ideology? Might he be hiding from his own fantasy and wishes? I have no idea. \u00a0May wisdom be his, and our, redemptive knowledge\u2013the kind of wisdom from above that James writes about: \u201cPure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy . . .\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

What noticeable similarities do you see in Peterson\u2019s ideologies to other authors?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n

[1]<\/a>\u00a0Peterson, Jordan B.\u00a0<\/span>12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos<\/span>. Random House Canada, 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0Peterson, Jordan B.\u00a0<\/span>Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief<\/span>. New York London: Routledge, 1999.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0Frankl, Viktor E., William J. Winslade, and Harold S. Kushner.\u00a0<\/span>Man\u2019s Search for Meaning<\/span>. 1st edition. Boston: Beacon Press, 2006.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0Pp. 128, 210, 255, 284.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[5]<\/a>\u00a0Peterson,\u00a0<\/span>Maps of Meaning<\/span>. P. 72<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[6]<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Utilitarianism<\/span>:<\/span>\u00a0Actions are right if they are useful or beneficial for the majority.\u00a0<\/span>Classical Liberalism<\/span>:<\/span>\u00a0Advocating private property, unhampered market economy and the rule of law.<\/span>Progressivism\/Wokeism<\/span>:<\/span>\u00a0Alert to radical prejudice and discrimination.<\/span>Non-Theistic Conservatism<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0The principle of separation of church and state.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first time I heard the name Jordan Peterson was in 2018. \u00a0Sitting in the back two rows of my Fall 2018 communication courses was a group of young men between the ages of 22-30 who found themselves enrolled in college after time serving in the military. \u00a0Several weeks into listening to their responses to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3137,2999,2455,2224,3033,3140,3141,3138,3139,316,1041],"class_list":["post-36871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-12rulesoflife","tag-ideology","tag-jordanpeterson","tag-meaningmapmaking","tag-petrusek-dlgp02","tag-suffering","tag-victorfrankl","tag-wisdom","tag-wise","tag-stories","tag-story","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36873,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36871\/revisions\/36873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}