A Reluctant Believer
Jordan Peterson’s relationship with religion has always been elusive. As a teenager in Alberta, he dismissed faith as something for the "ignorant, weak and superstitious." Decades later, in a 2017 interview, he would answer "yes" when asked if he was a Christian—then hedge when asked if he believed in God, saying the proper response was "no, but I’m afraid he might exist."
The tension between affirmation and doubt would become a hallmark of his public persona.
The Bible on the Couch
Peterson’s fascination with scripture is less theological than psychological. In 2017 he launched a live lecture series, The Psychological Significance of the Biblical Stories, analyzing the Book of Genesis as a set of archetypal narratives that encode patterns of behaviour essential for personal and cultural stability.
He approached figures like Adam, Eve, and Noah not simply as historical or mythical characters, but as embodiments of timeless human dilemmas: temptation, responsibility, sacrifice, the confrontation with chaos. The series, also released as podcasts, drew large crowds, turning biblical exegesis into something closer to a rock tour.
Later, he began a second series on the Book of Exodus, released on DailyWire+ in 2022, with another planned on the Book of Proverbs. His aim remained constant: to read scripture as a guide to navigating suffering and meaning, rather than as a strict doctrinal manual.
God as "Ultimate Fictional Character"
In a podcast with Douglas Murray and Jonathan Pageau, Peterson described God as the "ultimate fictional character"—the figure at the top of a "hierarchy of attention and action." It was not a flat dismissal. For him, the "fiction" is powerful precisely because it focuses our highest aspirations and fears.
This view draws heavily on Carl Jung’s interpretation of religion: gods and sacred symbols as expressions of deep psychological structures. Commentator Tim Lott compared Peterson’s outlook to Christian existentialists like Søren Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich, while noting his respect for Taoism and the Eastern Orthodox tradition’s emphasis on the tension between order and chaos.
Wrestling with God in Print
In 2024, Peterson gathered his religious reflections into We Who Wrestle with God, an analytical reading of the first five books of the Bible, plus Job and Jonah. Christianity Today found moments of genuine insight but warned that his treatment was "slippery on theological truth." The Times was harsher, calling the book "unreadable" and accusing it of "symbological paranoia," while former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams criticized Peterson’s "insistent contempt for nuance" and reduction of opposing views.
A Viral Debate and Renewed Ambiguity
In May 2025, Peterson appeared in a Jubilee Media debate originally titled 1 Christian vs. 20 atheists. During the discussion, which went viral, he refused to identify as a Christian and remained evasive about his beliefs, surprising the atheist participants who had been told they would be debating a believer.
The episode crystallized the paradox at the heart of his religious stance: a man whose lectures and books are steeped in biblical narratives, who speaks often of God, yet resists clear doctrinal labels.
The Takeaway
Peterson’s religious journey is less a march toward certainty than an ongoing confrontation with the sacred as psychological reality. In his world, faith is not just about what is true but about what stories we live by—and what happens when those stories are abandoned, or taken too literally.