With all due respect to those who’ve weighed in on Jordan Peterson’s new book (I’m thinking particularly of Brad East and Rowan Williams), Bonhoeffer already identified the fundamental weakness of Peterson’s approach way back in Discipleship:

Discipleship is commitment to Christ. Because Christ exists, he must be followed. An idea about Christ, a doctrinal system, a general religious recognition of grace or forgiveness of sins does not require discipleship. In truth, it even excludes discipleship; it is inimical to it. One enters into a relationship with an idea by way of knowledge, enthusiasm, perhaps even by carrying it out, but never by personal obedient discipleship. Christianity without the living Jesus Christ remains necessarily a Christianity without discipleship; and a Christianity without discipleship is always a Christianity without Jesus Christ. It is an idea, a myth.

In a footnote, the editor notes how Bonhoeffer had underlined a passage in Kierkegaard with much the same flavor: “‘Discipleship’…really provides the guarantee that Christianity does not become poetry, mythology, and abstract idea.” In Peterson’s hands, the Bible must remain mythic, symbolic, archetypal (which, it should be said, is compatible with quite fresh and energetic readings of the text). Ultimately, though, it’s the difference between Christianity as self-help and Christianity as call to discipleship.