Is Dr. Jordan Peterson a Christian? 

Public intellectuals are a cornerstone of modern society. They provide accessible, critical commentary on culture from the perspective of their discipline, helping people reflect on life without being overly technical. 

Dr. Jordan Peterson is one of the most influential public intellectuals of the 21st century. He became famous, in part, by lecturing on the Old Testament. Recently, he appeared on a YouTube debate show called “Surrounded,” where he faced 20 atheists. 

One might assume that knowing whether he was a Christian would be a simple matter. Unfortunately, Dr. Peterson’s faith is neither simple nor clear, and the Surrounded episode is going viral for that reason. 

So, who is Dr. Peterson? Is he a Christian? And why is his faith so controversial?

Who is Jordan Peterson? 

Dr. Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist and professor of psychology. He authored Maps of Meaning in 1999, which, although well-received, did not launch him into intellectual stardom. He rose to prominence in 2016 for critiquing a Canadian law that would have compelled people to use transgender gender pronouns. 

Around the same time, Dr. Peterson uploaded a series called The Psychological Significance of the Biblical Stories, which garnered tens of millions of views. In them, he identifies psychological principles that transcend culture and history. 

Dr. Peterson charismatically plumbs the depths of biblical stories, like the tale of Cain and Abel, for thoughtful wisdom. He calls biblical stories “meta-truths” because they represent patterns of life so well that he thinks everyone should attend to them to live a more purposeful, orderly life.

Dr. Peterson then began a tour of public speaking and podcast appearances while continuing his YouTube series. He wrote the massively successful self-help book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. In 2020, for a year, he stepped away from public life due to health complications and an addiction to benzodiazepines.

He returned to public life after completing Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life. In 2022, he joined the conservative media platform The Daily Wire. 

What is Dr. Peterson’s message? 

Dr. Peterson draws from a few primary sources:  

• The Bible,
• Jungian psychology, 
• Existential philosophers, 
• Great Western literary works,
• Evolutionary psychology.

In his magnetic, digressive, intense lectures, he weaves these themes together to unpack meaning, order, chaos, existentialism, and truth. Mostly, he interprets literary works, like the Bible, through the lens of psychological and allegorical analysis. 

He views his work as a campaign against nihilism and tyranny. In particular, his message seems to resonate with young, disaffected men. He preaches responsibility and value, over and above progressive views of Marxism and Critical Theory.

Dr. Peterson says things like, “The purpose of life, as far as I can tell. . . is to find a mode of being that’s so meaningful that the fact that life is suffering is no longer relevant,” and “To suffer terribly and to know yourself as the cause: that is Hell,” and “Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.”

In short, his teachings are compelling and uniquely tailored to modernity’s nihilistic drift. But, you may be asking yourself, is he a Christian? It’s complicated. 

Is Jordan Peterson a Christian? 

Over the years, Christian thinkers have wrestled with Dr. Peterson’s influence. On the one hand, he’s inspired millions of non-Christians to take the Bible seriously. On the other hand, he’s historically dodged whether he “believes” in God because he holds to complicated views of “belief” and unorthodox views of “God.”

To anyone new to Dr. Peterson’s work, this may seem odd. It’s a straightforward, yes or no question, right? Not necessarily. 

Dr. Peterson defines belief as something like, roughly, “That which you are willing to live and die for.” More controversially, he defines God as something like, roughly, “that which unifies your being towards the highest aim.” He says, verbatim, “God is the unity upon which moral claims are based.” 

In this sense, he believes that atheists don’t understand God, and therefore, they reject him when they shouldn’t. Broadly, Dr. Peterson values what Christians value: Self-sacrifice, love, excellence, justice, and the good, and he looks to the Bible as a central source of value and wisdom. 

However, he does not affirm, “propositionally,” that Jesus literally rose from the dead, for example. He might agree that, in one sense, by sacrificing himself for the highest good, Jesus did rise from the dead, and that this is more profound and more true than whether Jesus historically, physically, rose from the dead.

One Christian vs. 20 Atheists? 

In a popular debate show, “Surrounded,” by Jubilee, a single debater is surrounded by 20 people with the opposing view. In this episode, Dr. Peterson is surrounded by 20 atheists. At first, the episode was titled “One Christian vs. 20 Atheists,” but the channel renamed the video “Jordan Peterson vs. 20 Atheists” within a few hours. 

Several lay atheists catch Dr. Peterson in logical fallacies. A common critique of Dr. Peterson is that he is purposefully vague to advance his views. One of the debaters said Dr. Peterson, “operated under bad faith when he forgot about what basic words meant.” Watch the video and you’ll see what he means. 

Interestingly, many Christian thinkers struggle to nail down Jordan Peterson’s position, partly because they admire his ideas and glean from his insights. In my experience, atheists do the best job of showing the ways Dr. Peterson is not a Christian. In the Surrounded video, one atheist defines God with precision: “I define God as an agential, omniscient, omnipotent, supernatural entity.” Dr. Peterson dodges the question of such a being’s existence, as usual.

A particularly viral moment: He responds to one atheist who asks, “Are you a Christian?” by saying, “You say that. I haven’t claimed that.” The atheist looks around, bewildered, and laughs. This video demonstrates the weakness of Dr. Peterson’s worldview—his lack of a logically, theologically coherent view of God.

Where Jordan Peterson is right (maybe)

Christians can learn a lot from Dr. Peterson. He correctly points out that faith, or belief, is more than making a claim; true belief is living according to a value. As Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) As James writes, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (James 2:19).

Some evangelicals, wrongly, take stories like Cain and Abel to be merely about historical fact, rather than profoundly true for our lives. Arguably, the moral and Christ-centered messages are far more important than the former in the case of that story. (Many conservative Christians believe the authors of Genesis 1-11 didn’t intend it to be taken historically or scientifically.) 

Christians can learn a lot from Dr. Peterson’s unique psychological, existential vantage point of interpretation of texts like these.

Where Jordan Peterson is wrong (he’s not a Christian)

That said, Dr. Peterson misses a few crucial matters that preclude him from being a Christian.

• He does not seem to affirm the inspiration of Scripture as sourced externally, from God.
• He does not affirm a theologically correct or coherent vision of God.
• He does not seem to affirm the Apostle’s Creed.
• He does not seem to grasp or affirm the true gospel of Christ. 

As Paul writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). I believe Dr. Peterson is likely closer to God than many who claim to be Christians. That said, although assent to theological essentials is necessary to be a Christian, it isn’t sufficient to make you a Christian. For that, you need to follow Jesus.

Though he’s brought countless people in contact with Christianity and encouraged many Christians, he’s also pulled some away from the faith. As one of the atheist debaters, ironically, admits at the end: “I credit Peterson for turning me into an atheist.”

Jordan Peterson is like Nicodemus 

Christianity Today’s president, Dr. Russell Moore, also wrote an essay on the video. I agree with him: 

A more charitable view might wonder if, like Nicodemus, Peterson was asking questions without yet knowing the answers (John 3:4). Or perhaps, like C. S. Lewis at the first stages of his grappling with God, Peterson is becoming broadly convinced that something or someone is out there beyond his sight, but he’s not yet sure what or who that is. Whatever the case, I stand by my assertion that Peterson’s non-answer is better than some possible answers.

Dr. Moore is right that at least Dr. Peterson doesn’t pretend to be an evangelical. By non-answering, he at least doesn’t answer according to a lie (which, famously, he refuses to do). 

I believe intellectual Christians should grapple with Dr. Peterson’s ideas. They’re much more interesting and profound than the so-called “new atheists,” like Richard Dawkins. 

However, be wary: He is not a Christian. Neither is he a theologian nor a philosopher. Instead, I take Dr. Peterson to be a biblical, existentialist psychologist. There is value to his work, but that value will be mined best by understanding its limitations as well.

Would you join me in praying for him? Pray that, like C.S. Lewis and so many other great thinkers, he accepts Christ as his sole mediator between him and God, that he learns to follow Jesus and accept his gift of salvation. If Dr. Peterson accepts Jesus as his personal savior, he will be an intellectual force to be reckoned with for Christ. How can you use your God-given gifts today? 

NOTE: I hope to respond to this video more philosophically on my Substack, Agape Sophia.