Dr. Jordan B. Peterson is a clinical psychologist, author, podcaster, cultural critic and former professor at the University of Toronto. Michelle Butterfield, writing for Global News in December 2024, described Peterson as \u201ca public figure with a huge social media following that people appear to either fully embrace or abhor\u201d [1]. His fame sky-rocketed when he refused to be forced to address other people by gender neutral pronouns, impacting his standing with the College of Psychologists of Ontario and the University of Toronto [2]. Peterson has authored several books, including Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief <\/i>[3], and has over 8 Million subscribers to his YouTube channel, which features his lecture series, The Psychological Significance of the Bible<\/i> [4]. In these works, Peterson lays out the role of archetypes, and the interplay between chaos and order, but as one speaking primarily to empiricists on the way ancient mythologies and religious beliefs must become integrated or at least respected to form what he advocates for \u2014 a more \u201ccomplete world-picture\u201d [5].<\/p>\n
He builds his argument on the foundation of Piaget, Neitzche, Yung, and Joseph Campbell [6]. In Campbell\u2019s epilogue, there is a strong rebuttal for a modern intellectual negative characterization of mythology. He writes<\/p>\n
Mythology has been interpreted by the modern intellect as a primitive, fumbling effort to explain the world of nature (Frazer); as a production of poetical fantasy from prehistoric times, misunderstood by succeeding ages (M\u00fcller); as a repository of allegorical instruction, to shape the individual to his group (Durkheim); as a group dream, symptomatic of archetypal urges within the depths of the human psyche (Jung); as the traditional vehicle of man\u2019s profoundest metaphysical insights (Coomaraswamy); and as God\u2019s Revelation to His children (the Church). <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He continues<\/p>\n
Mythology is all of these. The various judgments are determined by the viewpoints of the judges. For when scrutinized in terms not of what it is but of how it functions, of how it has served mankind in the past, of how it may serve today, mythology shows itself to be as amenable as life itself to the obsessions and requirements of the individual, the race, the age [7].<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A complete world-picture coming from both science and mythology\/religion has been raised by others. Stephen Hicks, in critiquing postmodernism, references Bertrand Russell\u2019s conclusion about how philosophy \u201ccannot answer its questions and so came to believe that any value which philosophy might have cannot lie in being able to offer truth or wisdom\u201d [8]. We must turn to the great narratives of antiquity, to account for the mysteries of the universe, and awareness of the Divine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Two Ways to Look at the World?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Peterson\u2019s merging of these threads is clear. \u201cThe world can be validly construed as a forum for action (mythological representation of the world), as well as a place of things\u2026 using the formal methods of science\u201d. \u00a0<\/span>In explaining this forum for action, he uses the metaphor of a cosmic family, composed of 3 elements or personalities:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
- Unexplored territory (The Great Mother, nature, creative and destructive forces, source and end of all things),<\/span><\/li>\n
- Explored territory (The Great Father, culture, protective and tyrannical, accumulated wisdom, and<\/span><\/li>\n
- The process that mediates between the two (The Divine Son, the archetypal individual, creative Word and vengeful adversary)[9].<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
As a person of faith, I value the room for mystery here, in what Peterson explores and expounds as \u201cthe eternal unknown\u201d, \u201cthe eternal known\u201d, and the \u201ceternal knower\u201d who mediates between the unknown and known [10]. In Joseph Campbell\u2019s The Hero with a Thousand Faces,<\/i> we see a very similar \u00a0framework for this mediative role in \u2018the Hero\u2019:<\/p>\n
\n
- He\/she leaves their familiar home-world<\/li>\n
- He\/she faces and overcomes a great trial<\/li>\n
- He\/she returns victorious and with wisdom for all the people [11].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In the Christian faith, the eternal knower is \u201cthe Word made flesh\u201d who dwelt among us (John 1:14), fully Divine and human \u2014 Jesus, the Promised Redeemer and Everlasting King of the Universe (Revelation 19:16).<\/p>\n
Can We Resist Our Own Self-Importance?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Returning to Peterson, the challenge I am left with is to deepen humility in the face of the great Biblical narrative or mono-mythologies of history. If not, the temptation grows to become the hero or saviour of the world, or a demi-god myself. With ever-increasing notoriety comes the call to an ever-increasing diligence to surrender whatever privilege or power I am granted to the Everlasting King, lest I make myself the most important figure. Knowing the greatness of God and the vastness of the Universe is no guarantee that I learn to humble myself before such a God, but surely that is the call.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
[1] \u201cJordan Peterson Says He\u2019s Left Canada and Moved to the U.S. – National | Globalnews.Ca.\u201d n.d. Accessed April 10, 2025. https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/10916773\/jordan-peterson-moves-to-us-leaves-canada\/.<\/p>\n
[2] BBC News. 2016. \u201cToronto Professor Jordan Peterson Takes on Gender-Neutral Pronouns,\u201d November 4, 2016, sec. US & Canada. https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-37875695.<\/p>\n