Jordan Peterson should make his mind up about Christianity

Jordan Peterson is a cross between a student who has lately discovered the meaning of life, and a professor who has known it all along.

In an interview in this week’s Spectator, the former persona is sandwiched between two slices of the latter. First he holds forth about the Bible in a ponderous way, in order to give us a taste of his new book. His thesis is that the supreme story is one of unity and order, not the chaotic play of secular power, and also that sacrifice is of fundamental importance.

These are substantial ideas, but they are presented with slow pomposity, as if only now are they fully understood. But they are hardly new: some of us were pondering them back in the 1990s, thanks to the radical orthodoxy theological movement and the work of the late French scholar René Girard.

The second slice of know-it-all professor is the predictable culture-war stuff.