![](https://unherd.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/giles-100x100.jpeg)
They both exploded onto the intellectual scene from the frozen north, excoriating the laxity of the social assumptions of fashionable society and preaching a fierce message of moral seriousness that took the chattering classes by storm. Both insist upon a rule-based approach to ethics, and both are charismatic men who emphasise the importance of freedom and personal responsibility.
Both draw upon a version of Christianity as the moral sub structure of what is essentially a philosophy of self-help. And both have become such controversial figures that it is almost impossible to discuss their work without some people shouting.
The Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and the fourth-century Scottish theologian Pelagius have much in common.
My colleague, Peter Franklin, drew attention to this earlier in the week, when he wrote that “Christian critics of Peterson have accused him of ‘Pelagianism’ – the ancient heresy that sinners can save themselves by their own efforts.”
Pelagius has received a bad press throughout Christian history as the ultimate intellectual baddie, the arch heretic, the theological boogieman. But, to many people at least – even today – his teaching sounds exactly like what they imagine mainstream Christianity to be. God has given us the moral rules, says Pelagius, and the freedom to keep them. So keep the rules, and no excuses. And those that keep the rules will go to heaven and those that don’t will go to hell.
When Pelagius arrived in Rome preaching this uncompromising message of moral seriousness, he became an instant intellectual hit, his philosophy perfectly calibrated to appeal to those tired of Roman decadence and moral laxity. Rome was falling apart. Pelagius’s teaching could be easily described with the subtitle of Peterson’s bestselling 12 Rules for Life: an antidote to chaos.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
Subscribe