The God of Jordan Peterson

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Music written and generously provided by Paul Jernberg. Find out more about his work as a composer here: http://pauljernberg.com

Dr. Jordan Peterson's remarkable intellectual aptitude for philosophical inquiry puts many academically accredited philosophers to shame. In spite of his lack of formal training, he gets very far on his own and shows a profound appreciation for the directions one could go.

Many believing Christians look to him for a sophisticated and intellectually satisfying presentation of our creed without knowing how and in what ways he departs company with that tradition which has its own and robust explanation for the nature of reality, as well as God.

In this conversation, Fr. Hugh and I explore the successes he has achieved in inspiring his audience to be willing to sacrifice apparent goods for a more virtuous life as well as Peterson's conception of God and how it contrasts with the doctrines of the creed and of the Church.

About My Guest:
Fr Hugh Mackenzie PhL, MSc, is a Catholic priest in London, England. He is a chaplain at Westminster Cathedral and St John and St Elizabeth’s Hospital. He is also finishing off a PhD in the History of the Philosophy of Science at UCL. He taught philosophy for seven years in the London seminary, and edited FAITH magazine (www.faith.org.uk) for six years.

Fr Hugh's Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJPh6aNAx7-L_YcRnwYZ4DA/

The paragraph extracts from St John Paul II’s 1998 Encyclical Fides et Ratio, to which Fr Hugh refers, are here:

80. In Sacred Scripture … we learn that what we experience is not absolute … God alone is the Absolute. From the Bible there emerges also a vision of man as imago Dei … his freedom and the immortality of the human spirit, the essential dependence on God of every creature … moral evil— … stems not from any material deficiency, but is a wound inflicted by the disordered exercise of human freedom … directing the human being to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word of God, who is the perfect realization of human existence.“

83. We face a great challenge at the end of this millennium to move from phenomenon to foundation, a step as necessary as it is urgent. We cannot stop short at experience alone; even if experience does reveal the human being's interiority and spirituality, speculative thinking must penetrate to the spiritual core and the ground from which it rises. Therefore, a philosophy which shuns metaphysics would be radically unsuited to the task of mediation in the understanding of Revelation … (my bold)
If I insist so strongly on the metaphysical element, it is because I am convinced that it is the path to be taken in order to move beyond the crisis pervading large sectors of philosophy at the moment, and thus to correct certain mistaken modes of behaviour now widespread in our society.

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