The popular psychologist’s blinkered reading of the Bible does his cause no favours

It is not easy to review any book by Jordan Peterson, the prolific Canadian psychologist turned lifestyle sage. The temptation is to respond not to the work but the person (or persona): irascible, derisive, uncompromising, contrarian. But here, the work itself poses problems; it is a sprawling, repetitive text that could have done with some ruthless editing. Ostensibly a step-by-step guide through the biblical narratives of Genesis and Exodus (and, for some reason, Jonah), with the goal of uncovering wisdom to help meet present-day moral challenges, it in fact returns persistently to some of Peterson’s favourite tropes about modern culture, its flabbiness and confusion.

At one level its structure and argument are clear enough. The scriptural text confronts us, says Peterson, with a set of life-and-death choices. We can conform our rebellious fantasies and myth-driven aspirations to the underlying moral structure of reality, or we can refuse. If we refuse, we wreck our own lives and those of others. If instead we recognise reality, we then face two sorts of pressure.