The Gospel According to Jordan Peterson

From the back cover of The Discipleship Gospel:

Many today preach a gospel that makes converts, but not disciples. This is the result of non-discipleship gospels, which excludes the necessity to follow Jesus from their message.

First a basic theology lesson: gospel is the Old English translation of Greek εὐαγγέλιον, evangelion, meaning “good news.” Arguably, Jordan Peterson preaches good news that involves a fundamental change in thinking (metanoiaμετάνοια) that leads to changed behaviors (action).

As part of a “The Bonhoeffer Projectcohort I learned about a taxonomy of gospels that are regularly preached: 1. Forgiveness only, 2. Left: Old & New, 3. Prosperity, 4. Consumer, 5. Right, and 6. Kingdom.

Only rarely, if ever, is a Kingdom or Discipleship Gospel preached.

Søren Kirkegaard (1813-1855), Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 –1881), and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) were extremely critical of institutional Christianity. See, for example, this video: Dostoevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor”.

Jordan Peterson has provided his critique of institutional Christianity in 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. This critique is in chapter “Rule 7 Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient) under the heading “Christianity and its Problems”.

My response to the critiques of Kirkegaard, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, and Peterson is that the Kingdom Gospel, in the words of “The Six Gospels We Preach Today”, creates “Activists who are Christ-followers intent on learning to live as Jesus lived.”

Jordan Peterson’s message which he has and is carrying to the world is “good news” to those who are in chaos and seeking to bring meaning to their lives.

This is an extremely complex and sensitive theological issue so all I can do in this blog post is to introduce the topic. Most professing Christians have heard of sola fide. Arguably, the challenge is to reconcile this concept with “Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?” James 2:20 (ESV) Martin Luther’s response was that James should not be part of the canon.

I believe that Jordan Peterson has correctly identified the problem and that Matthew Bates in Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel of Jesus the King has provided the solution to the problem.

Stay tuned for more discussion of this topic.

I am arguing, and will argue, that the problem is in the institutions we (humans) have created and the gospel that is preached and not in the teachings of Jesus. When the kingdom/discipleship gospel is preached and we organize our churches around Jesus’ and Paul’s teachings, I am confident that we will get a “good” response to the second and third petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”