[The title of this post is shameless clickbait!]
On Friday night, I was at State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta in a crowd of some 10-12,000 people. Largely young, largely male. They had come out to listen to a talk on "We Who Wrestle With God" by the wildly popular Canadian psychologist, author, and one of the few, frankly, who could be called a public intellectual in our day and time, Dr. Jordan Peterson.
The Petersons are on a 53 (51?)-city lecture tour, and Atlanta was about the half-way point. As the darkened stadium filled up, a young artist performed some classical music as well as more contemporary pieces on his cello. There were videos advertising a new course on essay writing from the upcoming Peterson Academy. Tammy Peterson (on her way to becoming Catholic) introduced her husband, who was greeted with thunderous applause.
I counted seven priests who were present: 5 diocesan (all friends; one of whom had invited me to the event) and 2 religious. (Thanks brothers, for venturing into the public square!) There were several Catholic young adults that I recognized as well.
For the next two hours or more, this slender, white-haired man, in a blue suit, gave an a nonstop disquisition, with eyes closed, almost without taking a breath, on the Bible: the Ten Commandments (he followed the Catholic numbering!), and then a condensed version of his Exodus bible study. The talks were punctuated by applause of varying degrees -- loudest when tossing red meat to the largely politically conservative crowd ["I'll tell you what the definition of a woman is" or "the two parent heterosexual household is good for society for a reason" (my paraphrases)].
The talk covered a lot of ground; at times it was difficult to follow. However, the substance, as far as I could make out, was that the Commandments, and the Scriptures outline reality, and the reality of human nature, and it is best for us, individually, as well as collectively (family, society, polity) to order ourselves according to that given human nature. The categories and language were largely psychological, as well as anthropological, sociological and political. God -- the highest good, the transcendent -- a principle (living always aiming for the highest good, focused upward) that orders the life of the individual, and society. Some of the biblical commentary was truly interesting (the brazen staff of Numbers 20 combining the principle of chaos -- the serpent -- and the staff -- order [it's the theme of his second most popular book], for instance), and while he wasn't shy of making Christological typologies (such as the one the New Testament itself makes between Numbers 20 and Jesus being lifted up on the Cross), it was hard to tell whether God, the Bible, and nature provide only a template, a blueprint, for a better life -- collective and individual -- one marked by self-sacrifice, virtue, compassion, service, and order; or whether there was any sense of personal relationship with the divine at all. Actually, that is what I think I found entirely lacking -- what in Christian terms would be called spirituality. And, perhaps, as a result, no sense of an eternal destiny. The Bible, the Judeo-Christian worldview, is good and provides the foundation for Western civilization and we are reaping the ill effects of its marginalization.
The truly interesting bit came in the Q&A: three questions were asked, one of which concerned the use of screens and social media by children. This is where Peterson's psychological expertise rang true. He suggested phone free family meals; not giving young children screens, period (let them learn to be bored and learn how to amuse themselves, individually and collectively); the importance of play (real play, not mediated by screens), and letting children develop their imaginations; the importance of fathers being allowed to push boundaries in play and not letting an overcautious maternal instinct stifle this crucial fatherly role a child's development. "And let's keep the feminist harpies away from our fairy tales!" (cheers and applause). I couldn't disagree with anything he said.
Perhaps more interesting to me was the phenomenon itself. Peterson remains truly popular. Who else can summon thousands of people to a venue, deliver an at times rather dense, entirely verbal lecture on the BIBLE no less, and receive a standing ovation? That he's tapped into a deep vein of dissatisfaction with modernity and modern ways of ordering life in our society and culture. is obvious. Nor did he only give out crowdpleasers. When he talked about the deleterious effects of adultery, the guy sitting to my left was visibly upset, and buried his face in his hands. His lady friend reach over to comfort him.
I am glad at least some of our contemporary Church leaders engage him. [One is the only Bishop who is a household name for Catholics, I would wager, other than the Bishop of Rome; the other hosts a hugely popular podcast that involves reading, cover to cover, the Bible]. However, for the most part, I find so much of our internal Catholic discourse to be rather out of touch with what people, particularly young adults in our culture, are seeking, and the modes in which they gather, converse, explore and seek.
I could, for instance, compare this evening to an evening the previous week, where, as part of the ongoing synod deliberations, there was a "listening session" put together for young people and college students. I took some of our UWG students to it. We were divided into groups, and followed a scripted "conversation in the Spirit". [I don't recall if anyone asked if this is what young people actually want to do, but then, no one asked my opinion.] There were some 40 people there, not all of them young. This was to be a regional session, open to the whole Archdiocese, and to those on the "peripheries." Perhaps it's not entirely a fair comparison. The contrast was stark, however. In my experience, providing spaces for young people to actually engage real questions is always fruitful and productive. And so necessary! And, like in every age, people, young and old, long for authenticity. In our culture of carefully controlled corporate speech, and the sense that the authorities are constantly gaslighting us, someone who is perceived as "telling it like it is" and willing to speak boldly, will find open ears. It would be so much better if they were apostles of the Gospel engaging in parrhesia, as opposed to demagogues.
The Peterson phenomenon (and he is absolutely a cultural phenomenon), invites so much vitriol and downright hatred. Mostly from the ones whom I call the purveyors of the "new religion:" the cult of man and the will to power; who deny metaphysics and the reality of a stable human nature; who think that the achievements of Christian civilization (which they live off of, even as they excoriate it as being entirely a project rooted in oppression) can be jettisoned for an imagined utopia of libertine license, that ultimately ends only in tyranny. May his voice continue to sound.