Thoughts on Jordan Peterson's Jubilee Debate: More Aristotelian Than Meets the Eye

Jordan Peterson's Jubilee debate has generated intense online controversy and discussion over why Jordan Peterson, famous psychologist and lecturer, won't commit to Christianity--despite the majority of his recent content focusing on what he calls "the biblical corpus." The question everyone continues to ask--and that Dr. Peterson finds hard to answer--is "Do you believe in God?"

But, "What does it mean to believe?"

In the Jubilee debate, Peterson defines belief as action, such that one's risks his/her life for it. To believe something as true is to embody and act the piece of truth out, not merely say it is so. He regards lies as the chief enemy of truth, and the foundation for totalitarian states. 

Peterson often tells people to "aim up," likening it to an archer seeking to hit the target (sin, he points out, literally means 'to miss the target'). Upward aim guides one's beliefs (actions) for the better. Yet, this idea about belief originates not in the analytical psychologist Carl Jung, of whom Peterson is a disciple of. The idea of upward aim and "hitting the target" appears in Aristotle's The Nicomachean Ethics: "Like archers, if we have a target to aim at, won't we be more likely to hit upon what we've got to do?" This aim is the highest aim possible. For Aristotle and the Greek philosophers, the aim was the Good. Unlike Plato, who thought of this aim as the Form of Good, Aristotle believed this was achieved through action: "...the key good for human beings turns out to be: activity of the soul that expresses our goodness." 

Peterson, as a psychologist, rests the idea of an upward aim in the Jungian framework of stories. Stories, according to Jung, all express universal truth found within what he called the "collective unconscious" of all humanity through "archetypes"--common patterns of behavior rested in stories that manifest the collective unconscious' contents. The Wise Old Man, The Self, and The Shadow, are a few examples. The idea of upward aim itself, however, rests more so in Aristotelian ethics, which emphasize the actions of the soul towards goodness, rather than the idea, or the Form, of Goodness. Jung, from a psychological perspective, lays out how these actions manifest throughout human history. Belief then plays out in the Jungian framework. 

Regarding God, Aristotle states in his Metaphysics that: "Life also belongs to God; for the actuality of thought is life, and God is that actuality; and God’s self-dependent actuality is life most good and eternal. We say therefore that God is a living being, eternal, most good, so that life and duration continuous and eternal belong to God; for this is God." Life itself is God. The soul, in Aristotle's view, is in continuous motion and action. Aristotle also describes God as the "Unmoved Mover"--a unifying spirit of the source of all motion and life in the universe.

God as a metaphysical thing--life and the source of motion--comes far closer to Dr. Peterson's view of God than traditional Christian understanding does. (from the viewpoint of institution and believers, not necessarily the Christian texts). Peterson understands God through a set of definitions that make themselves manifest in the biblical corpus. Through the story of Abraham, Peterson describes God as "the Voice that calls one to adventure." In the story of Elijah, God is "the Voice of Conscience." In the story of Moses, God is "Being." In the story of Genesis, God is "The spirit that broods upon the waters"--the spirit of generating chaos out of order. All definitions have a common theme: voluntary, upward-aiming self-sacrifice.

These definitions of God that Dr. Peterson gleans from the Bible are definitions of what he calls a Unifying Spirit of the call to upward sacrifice that plays out through the Jungian archetypes. Jesus Christ, according to Peterson, is the one who embodies the call to upward sacrifice. This is why, in his view, the essence of being a Christian is to "take up your cross" and to engage in voluntary, upward-aiming sacrifice.

Christian thinkers, especially Thomas Aquinas, adopted and merged much of Aristotle's thinking into Christian theology. However, while Christian thinkers merged it into a Conscious Creator Being, with Will, Love, and Action in the world, Peterson merges it with the Unifying Spirit that brings together the definitions of God that plays out in the archetypes of the stories of human history, despite Peterson not integrating the idea of God as the source of motion. Consciousness itself, which in his view lies with human beings, is the source of motion.

Prayer, in Peterson's view, is direct communication with one's Conscience. It's a process of searching for the truth and calling upon the higher part of oneself, (the Original Mind, to use a term from Unifciationism), to get there. Traditional Christianity sees prayer as communication with a distinct, separate Being. 

When Aristotle's thinking is combined with the traditional Christian God, faith and action become separate, meaning the Being itself exists regardless of one's actions. However, for Dr. Peterson, God is a part of a Unifying Spirit of universal truths that manifest in the individual, who exists as a part of the collective unconscious. This, I believe, is the chief reason for why Peterson refuses to answer when asked "Do you believe in God?"

Jordan Peterson believes in God, just not the one Christians think of.

It gets confusing, to be sure, when Peterson gleans the majority of his definition of God from Christian texts. But he interprets them from a Jungian perspective based on aspects of Aristotelian metaphysics. Yet, most Christians to not think Peterson's views are wrong--in fact, many find them incredibly useful. At the same time though, Christians are growing more and more frustrated at his lack of conversion to Christianity. Some even wonder if Peterson should be talking about "their" God at all.

Another, more difficulty question arises for me: Is Jordan Peterson's understanding of God correct, and what does that mean for my relationship with God and my life of faith?

I'll seek to answer this question next time.