We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and gender and transgender discrimination.

The story of Cain and Abel (children of Adam and Eve) illustrates the birth of work, particularly considered as sacrifice to God. Cain is a farmer, while Abel is a shepherd. Peterson poses a definition of work: to do “what needs to be done, instead of what I want to do for the sake of present gratification” (90). Work is delay of gratification, or its sublimation to a “higher and more complete order,” as well as “a sacrifice made in the service of others” (90). As such, work is a religious act, where religious is understood as “what most profoundly seizes attention and compels action” (95). The highest and best type of work is that which is “truly pleasing to God” because it sacrifices for “what is truly highest” (98).

Peterson claims that learning the importance of work and sacrifice was a major step forward in human evolution out of the animal to the rational realm and that it remains such an important step toward maturity for human beings today. As human beings learned about sacrifice and work, they enacted stories to represent the importance of these facts and make sense of them.