Jordan Peterson defends Christianity more eloquently than most believers—so why won’t he call himself a Christian?

Jordan Peterson has spent years circling Christianity—defending it, studying it, admiring it, and insisting that Western civilization cannot survive without it. Yet when asked a simple question—Are you a Christian?—he still refuses to say yes.

Why?

In this episode, I explore why Jordan Peterson, despite his deep respect for Christ and the Bible, still won’t call himself a Christian. The answer, I argue, is not primarily intellectual. It’s existential.

Christianity does not merely ask to be understood. It demands surrender. It does not invite us to master it, but to be mastered by it. And for someone whose life has been built on meaning, responsibility, and self-authorship, that final step may be the most difficult of all.

This is not an attack on Peterson. It’s a meditation on a tension many modern people feel: wanting the moral architecture of Christianity without the personal cost of confession and submission. And it’s a reminder that faith is not something we analyze from a safe distance—it’s something we eventually have to step into, or walk away from.