{"id":41522,"date":"2025-04-08T10:56:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T17:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=41522"},"modified":"2025-04-08T10:56:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T17:56:26","slug":"the-mystery-and-the-revelation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-mystery-and-the-revelation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mystery and the Revelation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Word became flesh\u00a0and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory,\u00a0the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace\u00a0and truth.\u201d<\/em>[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

I have heard of Peterson and watched soundbites of him interviewed and interacting with others, but never sat down and read through some of his works directly. I\u2019ll admit that attempting to work through Maps of Meaning<\/em> was like starting a journey into a dense jungle where I quickly became lost. The dense terms, thought patterns, and ideas that seek to look at the \u201cthings behind the things\u201d quickly overwhelmed me. I took solace in the gift from Dr. Clark to get assistance from Ai and, like a drone flying over the dense jungle, it helped me see how Peterson has broken his book into four essential parts or arguments.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Order vs. Chaos<\/li>\n
  2. The Hero\u2019s Journey<\/li>\n
  3. Logos and Truth Telling<\/li>\n
  4. Narrative as Belief System<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Having a better understanding of the overall scope allowed me then to look specifically at Logos and Truth Telling as a way to examine Peterson\u2019s work and integrated it into my own way of making maps in the world. I agree with Peterson that, \u201cThe purpose of life, as far as I can tell, is to find a mode of being that’s so meaningful that it’s worth enduring the suffering of existence.”[2]<\/a> But where Peterson and I disagree is who is at the heart of that purpose.<\/p>\n

    I thought it would be timely to focus then, on an article by Peterson on the death and resurrection of Jesus. In this article, Peterson draws from his general work and thought process to show how Jesus embodies the Logos of sacrifice and suffering within the hero\u2019s journey to resurrection. Jesus does this, in Peterson\u2019s view, because this is ultimate actualization of a human person. In many ways, I completely agree.<\/p>\n

    However, where I disagree with Peterson is in the human-centric focus of this redemption story. He writes:<\/p>\n

    \u201cIt is psychologically true that we should encounter Satan in the desert, understand ourselves as the epicentre of evil as well as good, pick up our tragic burdens and crosses, die, and renew our souls…That is the death and the resurrection, celebrated by Easter, and it is time for us to wake up and recognise it as such.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

    If I understand Peterson\u2019s perspective correctly (and who knows if I really do) Jesus died and rose again because that is the ultimate human story and we are to participate in that story because it is the ultimate human story. But this \u2018meta-narrative\u2019 that Peterson believes is not the same \u2018meta-narrative\u2019 of Scripture. Peterson\u2019s story is human-centric, and Scripture\u2019s is God-centric.<\/p>\n

    While there are definite themes and devices used in Scripture similar to what Peterson describes in all human cultures (order vs. chaos, logos and truth-telling, the hero\u2019s journey, narrative as a belief system) the ultimate story of Scripture is God\u2019s Story and how we as humans are wrapped up in it, not how God is wrapped up in our story. St. Athanasius wrote in his work On The Incarnation<\/em> \u201cFor the Son\u00a0of God became man so that we might become God.\u201d[4]<\/a> In other words, God becomes human in the person of Jesus so that we might become wrapped up in God\u2019s Story, God\u2019s Relationship, God\u2019s way of redeeming and restoring the world. While Peterson uses similar language and has great thoughts around ethics and human behavior, that path through the jungle will never lead to a spacious place. Instead, the vines and bogs of human failure and brokenness, even our own attempts at death and resurrection, while leave us trapped.<\/p>\n

    But, when we find ourselves wrapped up in The Story of God, not as one of many stories, but an exclusive narrative that, while heavily involving humans does not have humanity at its center but God at its center, then we are caught up in unfolding drama of God setting the world right again. While I agree with Peterson when he states that, \u201cThe world can be validly construed as\u2026a forum for action,\u201d[5]<\/a> the action is God\u2019s and the forum is God\u2019s.<\/p>\n

    So, what are the implications of Peterson\u2019s work for leadership, particularly in the church during this season of Lent and Holy Week? I believe that our transformation as people on the path to following Jesus begins first by accepting the gift of our limits (sin, brokenness, separation, rebellion) that leads us to receiving the grace of God for what Jesus has done, on our behalf. This leads us to worship the Risen Christ because we have been forgiven and redeemed. It is only then, after receiving grace and acknowledging the glory of God, \u201cfull of grace and truth\u201d, that we can be transformed into the people He has created us to be. Yes, we are called to die to ourselves, to love our neighbor and to take part in a grand cosmic story (all things Peterson writes and speaks about). But we can only do so when we first acknowledge that God has done what we cannot, because of His deep love for us, and we are caught up now in His Story, and not our own. \u201cThanks be to God for his indescribable gift!\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> John 1:14, NIV<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Jordan Peterson, Maps of Meaning<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> Jordan Peterson: the bestselling author and clinical psychologist on why there\u2019s still power in the Easter story<\/a><\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> CHURCH FATHERS: On the Incarnation of the Word (Athanasius)<\/a><\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Peterson, Maps of Meaning<\/p>\n

    [6]<\/a> 2 Corinthians 9:15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cThe Word became flesh\u00a0and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory,\u00a0the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace\u00a0and truth.\u201d[1] I have heard of Peterson and watched soundbites of him interviewed and interacting with others, but never sat down and read through some of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[3442],"class_list":["post-41522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-peterson-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41522","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\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41522"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41524,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41522\/revisions\/41524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}