The Psychological Significance Of The Biblical Stories: Genesis by Jordan B. Peterson

The Psychological Significance Of The Biblical Stories: Genesis Reviews

• 
  Chidi Brendan Obiechefu

  I never imagined that I’d be sat for hours listening so keenly to biblical sermons, bearing in mind how woefully I’ve failed to drag myself to 50 minute mass on Sundays!
  
  What Dr Peterson has done with these stories is phenomenal in my opinion. In a world today where we conveniently disparage our ancient myths and stories, and generally view religion as a useless and a catastrophic plague on human existence, he has turned the tide and stimulated us again intellectually to re-evaluate, and see the intrinsic values in these stories, as well as to appreciate them (and religion generally even though flawed in many ways), as genuine human conscious, spiritual and intellectual achievement over thousands of years, laying the foundations for the much better society we have today.
  
  Though deep within us, we know the ideas and values put forward by these stories, but Dr Peterson - with his unparalleled gift of eloquence, retells them in a much more compelling, engaging, and intellectually-stimulating way, to a modern audience which has long forgotten its roots for the most part.
• 
  Soren Kerk

  watched twice - some three times.
  that is my review.
  they are packed - you can FEEL them packing onto your brain stem and up around to the top, front.
  it all makes sense - literally, as in: makes. sense.
• 
  Thomas

  Unprecedented.
• 
  Steven Siswandhi

  Thoroughly enjoyable. It's a transcribed series of lectures, and I'm surprised at its length, which is like 500 pages. First few are Peterson at his commonsensical and mindblowing best. But the rest are basically a lot of repeat of his main themes. Learned heaps and never ceased to be replenished and surprised at Peterson's verbal ability, to put into words things that's so complicated it's only manifested through dreams.
• 
  A_Ryan

  5+++ ABSOLUTELY RIVETING STARS!!
  
  This lecture series, now available as a podcast series, with links to transcripts, is an extraordinary insight into evolutionary psychology, human behaviour, biblical symbolism and Tradition, power, sacrifice, and love.
  
  Amazing. Just... incredible!
  
• 
  Dania

  "Te guste o no, tu existencia está basada en la fe".
• 
  "How Do You Pronounce That?"

  At times overly verbose, but thats just the chronic condition of academia.
  
  This will change how you view everything. Suddenly you start seeing Bible stories everywhere and in everything.
  
  I would love for everyone to listen to these lectures as they're far more accessible than the book - but that's not too likely. Peterson has an awful habit of being so damn verbose he's incomprehensible.
  
  Regardless, this was an amazing experience.
  
  4.5/5
• 
  Darjeeling

  I'm pretty sure I'm still an atheist, but this was an excellent series of lectures.
• 
  Einar

  The time I spent listning to Petersons biblical series, is probably some of the best spent hours of my life. The series took turns and detours that was just mind blowing. I wish this was around when I was 18. No matter what you think about JBP, he is truly one of the greatest intellects of our time..
• 
  Ashwin Kamaldien

  In this lecture series Dr Jordan Peterson breaks down the psychological significance of the first book of the Christian cannon: Genesis.
  
  This lecture series has knowledge to fill at least 3 books, but everything is kept so interesting and concise all throughout. The lectures are not portrayed in a way as to glorify the Christian God, nor is it a reductionistic view of religious texts as the popular “an opioid for the masses” sentiment would have you believe.
  
  The idea of God, the significance of the stories of Joseph, Cane and Abel, Jacob, Adam and Eve and the flood are all discussed at length through an evolutionary psychology lens. This is not a biblical sermon of any kind, people from any background can learn so much from this lecture series. Imagine a sermon minus the preachiness and a whole lot more discussion of evolution and deep diving into the essence of these stories.
  
  The phenomena of divinity, morality, experiential carryover, bargaining with the world and the ‘upward aiming’ nature of mankind is handled with such profundity I struggle to put it into words.
  
  This is truly the kind of theological discussion I have craved throughout my entire life. I am a deeply rational person, but something has always intrigued me about the relationship between these stories and our modern idea of rationality, morality and meaning. Peterson is a consummate professional throughout these lectures, never wavering in his dissection of where these ideas came from and how we adopted them into our collective psyche. I often compare these lectures to watching a masterful athlete performing with impressive feats of articulation instead of bodily prowess.
  
  I consistently had my thoughts challenged, long-held ideas articulated in a way I could only dream of, and my deepest beliefs brought consciousness through the exploration of these stories. I tried my best to go into this series unbiased, my religiosity and personal influence Peterson has had on me being possible factors, but I truly believe this is one of the best explorations of these fundamental human ideas I have ever heard.
  
  I promised myself 5 years ago that one day I would finish this series of lectures. For reference, there are 15, 2.5-hour lectures. I can confidently say, 37.5 hours (about 1 and a half days) were well spent.
  
  I implore anyone with even the merest interest in theology to watch these lectures (or at least the first one). The entire series is freely available on YouTube and podcast apps as well.
  
  
• 
  Chris Ogunlowo

  Just now, I completed watching the entire playlist on the Biblical stories. The clarity and the profundity of the message justify the length of the videos. It speaks to Jordan's gift of storytelling and packaging. Even as an advertising creative director, I marvel at how captivating the videos are without any dint of new-agey pretensions on content marketing. Ultimately, the lesson here, at least in a marketing sense, is about speaking to and the ennoblement of the human core where authenticity is the main currency. I've gleaned so much from the lectures. They're - in no small measure - going to serve as guideposts in navigating through the world. I'm currently reading Beyond Order and I can see how it's an essential companion to 12 Rules. Above all, I'm grateful to have discovered Jordan and the message he carries. A big respect on how he connects different domains of knowledge and more importantly how he synthesises the sacred with the secular. It reminds of Einstein's quote on the symbiotic relevance of Science and Religion. What a great and erudite human. What an incredibly mysterious and beautiful world too.
• 
  Eimantas

  Incredibly insightful and eye-opening analysis. Seriously profound work based on Maps of Meaning.
• 
  Ciarán Murray

  This series of lectures is great. Even though I am an atheist, if you take these as stories and not gospel (pun intended) you will see the values, morals and life lessons that have guided Christians for thousands of years