“Christianity…is a perpetual breeding ground for violence, abuse, superstition, war, discrimination, tyranny, and pride. Religion and spirituality is a bottomless pit breeding illusion, deceit, and oppression.” 

The quote appears in a stunning essay about Abraham and the Akedah (ie, the story of the binding and near-sacrifice of Isaac, which appears in Genesis 22), which is chapter 2 in Peterson’s The Jesus Way. Like Soren Kierkegaard, Erich Auerbach, and countless others, Peterson finds in the story of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son a description of raw faith. It’s a terrifying story, one that makes us question many of our assumptions about God. As Peterson puts it:

How can God, whom our parents and pastors have taught us loves us from eternity, command this cold-blooded cruelty? How can God, whom Jesus tell us has such a tender heart that he is moved even by the death of sparrows, command a father to kill his son, without so much as a hint of explanation? 

In the end, Peterson sees God’s command to Abraham to slay Isaac as the ultimate test, the ultimate request for sacrifice. And “sacrifice is to faith what eating is to nutrition. …Faith, of which Abraham is our father, can never be understood by means of explanation or definition, only in the practice of sacrifice.” Of course, God offers a way out for Abraham, just as Paul said God would do for us (1 Cor. 10:13).