Studying the Sermon on the Mount: Reflections from Jordan Peterson’s Peterson Academy Lectures

In this episode, I reflect on the major themes from Dr. Jordan Peterson’s eight-part Peterson Academy lecture series on The Sermon on the Mount.This discussion is intended as personal study preparation and commentary, not as a replacement for the original Peterson Academy course. The episode focuses on the central ideas explored across the lectures, including humility, responsibility, judgment, prayer, moral orientation, resilience, truth, and the challenge of aligning one’s life with the highest good.The Sermon on the Mount remains one of the most influential moral and spiritual teachings in the Western tradition. Through Peterson’s psychological, biblical, and philosophical lens, the lectures examine how these teachings apply to character formation, personal transformation, social responsibility, and the pursuit of meaning.Topics discussed include the Beatitudes and the structure of wisdom; the relationship between humility, suffering, and moral development; the danger of hypocrisy and performative virtue; prayer, attention, and proper orientation toward the good; judgment, discernment, and responsibility; the call to seek, ask, and knock; and resilience, catastrophe, and building life on a solid foundation.This episode is part of my study process as I prepare for the Peterson Academy exam on the course.