THAT'LL BE THE DEITY

Pop psychology superstar Jordan Peterson feels it's high time his voice was heard on the most grandiose of subjects: God. The power of Christ compels Helen Coffey to ask: why?

- Helen Coffey

I already know it’s unwise to state this on the internet, but what the hell – I’m angry with Jordan Peterson. I’m angry because he inflicted a virtually unreadable 505-page book about God upon the world; I’m angry because I was forced to attempt to read it; and I’m angry because I now have a splitting headache and, worse, a head full of verbose sophistry and stupid misogyny from a Russell Brand-style big-word spouter, dolled up in the robes of a would-be St Augustine.

“Set yourself straight in intent, aim and purpose, as you begin to more deeply understand the structure of your society and your soul. Journey with Jordan Peterson through the greatest stories ever told. Dare to wrestle with God.”

So reads the self-aggrandising press release that accompanies We Who Wrestle with God, Peterson’s new, hefty doorstopper that’s as lofty in ambition as it is impenetrable to the casual reader. A lesson, if ever there was one, in overpromising and underdelivering.

I’ll say this for the wildly divisive pop-psych “public intellectual” who switched from lecturing to making obscene amounts of money telling young men to “straighten up and fly right” on YouTube: he’s not afraid to aim high. There could scarcely be a more formidable topic to tackle than that of the Creator Himself.