12/8/2018 Why Christians Love the Enneagram | Sojourners

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Why Christians Love the Enneagram

By Emily McFarlan Miller (/biography/emily-mcfarlan-miller) 10-04-2016

Image via  marekuliasz (http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-

149584p1.html)/Shutterstock.com

What’s your number?

It’s not a pickup line. At least, it wasn’t at the pre-conference portion of an event called
“Why Christian?,” (http://www.whychristian.net/) which was back for its second year at
Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago.

No, this inquiry is actually just a standard part of the Enneagram, an ancient personality
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typing system that recently has exploded in popularity in Christian a Story!
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Ian Morgan Cron, who co-led the Enneagram Conference on Sept. 29 with Suzanne Stabile,
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called it “disruptive spiritual technology.”
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But it may not be asWouldmodernyouas it sounds,
consider or as
a quick alien totothe
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o set as some
those costs? might fear.

In fact, some trace the Enneagram to a fourth-century Christian monk and ascetic named
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Evagrius (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evagrius_Ponticus),
df_id=8938&mfc_pref=T&8938.donation=form1)whose teaching later
influenced the formation of the
https://sojo.net/articles/why-christians-love-enneagram seven deadly sins, according to Cron and Stabile. 1/7
12/8/2018
Others detect elements of the Enneagram within Sufism and Judaism.
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The Enneagram came to the United States in the 1970s, where it initially caught on among
Catholic seminarians and priests and became a tool for spiritual formation.

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In its present form, the Enneagram includes nine personality types, or numbers, illustrated
by a nine-pointed geometric figure. (The term Enneagram comes from the Greek words
meaning “nine” and “drawing” or “figure.”)

Each, at its worst, is tied to one of the deadly sins – plus two more traits that have been
added in.

A person’s “type” is determined by self-examination; the goal being to better understand

oneself – and one’s strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies – and those of others.

Those types include:

One: The Perfectionist

Two: The Helper
Three: The Achiever
Four: The Individualist
Five: The Investigator
Six: The Loyalist
Seven: The Enthusiast
Eight: The Challenger
Nine: The Peacemaker Don't Miss a Story!
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Both Cron (a Four) and Stabile (a Two) encountered the Enneagram
ago through the book The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective
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(https://www.amazon.com/Enneagram-Christian-Perspective-Richard-
Rohr/dp/0824519507) by Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and
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founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation.

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12/8/2018
Cron — an author, counselor, songwriter, and Episcopal priest — was attending a
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conservative seminary at the time and thought the Enneagram was “genius.” He didn’t see
anything in it that conflicted with the gospel, he said.

But “one of my professors was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the horoscope. This is astrology.’”

He put the book down, but he didn’t forget about it.

Stabile, on the other hand, immediately got in touch with Rohr a er reading The
Enneagram: A Christian Perspective and began studying with him, she said. A speaker and
teacher, she has led more than 500 Enneagram workshops in the 25 years since then.

A er attending one of Stabile’s workshops, Cron said, “It just made sense at some point to
say we should write about this for people and do it narratively through story and not a list of
traits.”

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The two not only have written The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-
Discovery (https://www.amazon.com/Road-Back-You-Enneagram-Self-
Discovery/dp/0830846190/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475507490&sr=1-
1&keywords=the+road+back+to+you), out Oct. 4 by IVP Books, but also host a podcast
(http://theroadbacktoyou.com/) by the same name and events such as the Enneagram
Conference.

In the weeks leading up to the conference, Rachel Held Evans, a popular Christian writer
and co-organizer of Why Christian?, jokingly tweeted
(https://twitter.com/rachelheldevans/status/773248162744197121): “I can’t figure out
my Enneagram number so I might as well drop out of progressive Christianity.” Evans had
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organized the event with Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran pastor andMiss
alsoa aStory!
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But it’s not just “progressive” Christians who are rediscovering the Enneagram.
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“Now 20 years later, it’s fascinating to me even the (conservative) evangelicals are
completely fine with it. … I have not received any pushback from anybody,” Cron said.
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Rich Havard, campus pastor of The Inclusive Collective at the University of Illinois at
Chicago, said an evangelical friend studied the Enneagram while working on a doctorate in
ministry. It’s “really popular” at Havard’s church, too.

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12/8/2018
Both he and the Rev. Jarell Wilson, Why
the Christians
church Lovestarttheresident at Urban Village Church in
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Chicago, see the Enneagram’s popularity as part of a larger trend of Christians rediscovering
ancient spiritual practices. Havard, a Two, and Wilson, a Four, said that also is a trend, like
the Enneagram, that has transcended the progressive-conservative divide.

“I think there’s a tendency to want to go back to things that are deeper,” Wilson said.
“There’s a ton of Buzzfeed quizzes. There’s Myers-Briggs and all of this other kind of stu . To
connect to something that’s been working (for centuries) is just a little better. It feels more
holistic. We’re connecting to other cultures, too.”

Other conferencegoers were encountering the Enneagram for the first time.

Rachel St. Clair, a Mennonite, only learned about the Enneagram when she Googled it a er
she, her mom, and her sister purchased tickets to Why Christian? They already were
traveling from York, Pa., for the conference, she said.

By the first break in the conference, St. Clair already was convinced she was a One. As the
Perfectionist, she said, she was interested in “any way to understand and improve myself.”

Cron said he and Stabile don’t want to oversell the Enneagram. It isn’t a “miracle oracle,” he
said.

At the same time, he pointed to a quote from Catholic writer Thomas Merton: “For me to be
a saint means to be myself.”

And Stabile said she’s found it to be true. She hopes teaching people to learn about the way
they see the world and the eight other ways people see the world will encourage
compassion.

“I think we are collectively and intuitively drawn to (the Enneagram) because we’re losing
compassion, and I think we know it, and I think we know it is our responsibility to be Christ-
like. We can’t do that without compassion and empathy,” she said.Miss a Story!
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“Our hope is that the book makes the world a more compassionate, delivered
more loving, andstraight
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Emily McFarlan Miller (/biography/emily-mcfarlan-miller)

Emily McFarlan Miller writes for the Religion News Service.

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12/8/2018 Why Christians Love the Enneagram | Sojourners

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