This month we are giving pride of place to the Jordan Peterson phenomenon which has been sweeping YouTube, and which is now sweeping the bookshops. We have three articles in which we look at his two published works: Maps of Meaning, and the new book 12 Rules of Life – an antidote to chaos, as well as an article on his fascinating views on marriage.
Watching recently a YouTube video (google: “How to: academy Jordan Peterson”) in which Peterson summarises his 12 Rules for Life, it struck me how simply captivating he is as a speaker. He communicates with his whole being: the tone of his voice, his body language and hand gestures, his smiles and occasional laughter or at times an angrily raised voice, the fixing of his eyes on different members of the audience as he speaks. This is not a stilted TED talk, clearly rehearsed for hours before the mirror. He seems unconcerned with how what he is saying is going over. He speaks from the heart (always without notes) and conveys a conviction that what he is saying is not only true, but is also desperately important for people’s lives.
He seems to give no importance to the fact that much – if not most – of what he has to say runs diametrically opposed to the orthodoxies of our age. And yet people in their millions are desperately hungry to hear what he has to say.
And this has made me think about how we Catholics (and clerics particularly) often fail to communicate the Gospel message with anything like the same magnetism. We say that people are not interested in what we are saying (or preaching). Is it rather that people are waiting to hear someone who preaches “with authority” (Mt.7:29) – the authority that comes from staking one’s whole life on the message?