Happy Epiphany! Wokeism is not post-modern Marxism, but heretical Christianity

Each year I try and put the season into a Christian perspective because, as plenty of scholars, from Tom Holland to Augusto Zimmermann have demonstrated, even if we think it isn't, ours is still a deeply Christian society.

It has provided us with a unique worldview which leads to modern liberal secularism and the belief in rights and the universal intrinsic worth of human beings. This persists, even if church attendance declines.

But you can't be properly culturally Christian if you don't understand Christianity. As I have argued, Wokeism is not post-modern Marxism, but heretical Christianity. If you want to fight back against it, the most successful and potent arguments are more likely to be found in the writings of Paul the Apostle than anyone from the Enlightenment.

The ARC conference in London in 2023 had a strong Christian undertone. Thinkers like Jordan Peterson seem to have arrived at the same place I have – that there needs to be a rebirth of a Christian understanding of the world so our society can function properly.

Maybe this is what he has in mind with his idea of a 'Better Story'.

Peterson strikes me as a St Paul for our times. Like Paul it would seem he's had his own epiphany and has now produced three documentary series on the Bible – Genesis, Exodus, and The Gospels. His most recent book is We Who Wrestle with God.

Like Paul he comes from outside Christianity, yet from within the cultural tradition.

Paul made Christianity understandable to 'Gentiles', the non-Jewish pagans that peopled the Greco-Roman world, from his position as a sophisticated Jewish pharisee with a great depth of classical Greek knowledge.

Peterson (a portentous name as it is literally 'son of Peter' and St Peter was the accepted leader of the church and in some ways in competition, or even opposition, to Paul) makes Christianity understandable to a therapeutic world from his position somewhere within the Christian tradition, but also as a professor of psychology and a licensed therapist.

Like Paul, Peterson is intense and dense. He's often difficult to follow and adds a gloss to Biblical passages that I don't think is actually there. But he is packing the crowds in and transforming people's lives.

Paul would harangue small crowds for hours, even into the early hours of the morning. Peterson can fill the O2 Arena in London with 20,000 people and keep them spellbound, without PowerPoints or any visual aids, for hours.

At the ARC conference I chatted about this with Mark Latham, who said, 'Mate, it would never work in Australia.'