This just occurred to me recently. I might have to add it to my book.
A challenge with understanding Dr. Peterson’s view of God is that he uses words and language in his own way. He says he’ll stake his life on the idea that God exists, but the God he believes in is not what you think of as God.
One simple way to bridge this gap is to reflect on the idea of God as the voice of conscience. I don’t mean that God reveals himself through the conscience. I don’t mean that conscience is somehow a reflection of the will of God.
What I mean is that God is conscience. That nagging thing in your head that reproves you and demands your obedience is God. All our concepts of God are built on top of that. They’re all extrapolations from that basic psychological reality.
From that perspective, God is not an entity who calls to Moses. God is the voice in Moses’ head.
Dr. Peterson has a bias to try to explain everything in psychological terms. God included.
Consequently, God is not an external being. He’s a psychological phenomenon.
Please note that this is a shortcut. It doesn’t do justice to the depth and breadth of Dr. Peterson’s thoughts on the matter. But if you think about it for a while, it will get your brain in the right groove to understand JBP’s point of view. If you come to his book (or lectures) thinking of God in traditional terms, you’re not going to get it.
For more, see Wrestling with Jordan Peterson’s God: A Systematic Guide to Dr. Jordan Peterson’s Religious Thoughts
It’s sort of skewed to call JBP to having a conversion. His “god” definitely is the god that Man created and not the God that created man. His god is not the same as that of the Nicene Creed. It’s more of him having a framework change.
Certainly not a conversion to Christianity. Framework change might be a better explanation.
Phrase I maybe should have used was paradigm shift. Seems to be just another wrapper around his Jungian base starting point–collective unconscious.
And maybe he’s just trying to make his views more palatable to Christians to get more book sales or attention.
Very possible