We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine

Peterson’s popularity as an author has been linked to the existence of a “crisis of meaning” in contemporary Western societies. This crisis has in turn been related to a decline in traditional religious and social structures, growing alienation and isolation, and the rise of postmodern and relativist philosophies. Peterson’s books and speeches are part of a larger reaction to this perceived crisis, from a variety of ideological perspectives.

Since his first book, Maps of Meaning, Peterson has pitched his works as an antidote to the meaning crisis, emphasizing the need for stable values, a sense of purpose, and order. In particular, Peterson sees the stories of the Bible as embodying ideas and values that can solve the crisis of meaning. For example, in We Who Wrestle With God, Peterson interprets the story of Noah as indicating the dangers of ignoring traditional wisdom in favor of “mere fads of consensus” (161), with the flood symbolizing a disaster that is unleashed when morality is rejected. The story of Babel, in Peterson’s interpretation, symbolically enacts the crisis of meaning by depicting an arrogant society that builds a tower to heaven only to have its language disintegrate.

For Peterson, biblical literacy can solve the meaning crisis because the Bible forms the foundation of Western thought and civilization. Peterson’s guiding premise is that the traditional has proved itself effective over time, but some critics reject this emphasis on tradition as a regressive attempt to reimpose outdated (and, to many, offensive) social norms. In Peterson’s own words, “The Bible is the library of stories on which the most productive, freest, and most stable and peaceful societies the world has ever known are predicated—the foundation of the West, plain and simple” (xxxi). For Peterson’s critics, this privileging of “the West” over the rest of the world is emblematic of the regressive nature of his thought.

For Peterson, the biblical stories shed light on life’s challenges, and thus give life meaning, by depicting individual human beings’ struggles with morality and the divine. In searching the Bible for meaning, Peterson privileges particular values in the stories, including the importance of individual responsibility and hierarchy (e.g., delay of gratification and aiming at the highest good). This is because, according to Peterson, the collapse of meaning has been due to an overemphasis on “the wealth of material comfort” and selfish hedonism at the expense of traditional wisdom (161); accordingly, the recovery of meaning must involve submitting to a higher and collective wisdom embodied in the biblical worldview.