The Theology of the Enneagram

ONE

The Enneagram. The word itself, at this point, elicits a certain reaction when you hear it. What exactly does it elicit for you? Intrigue? Identity? Fascination? Confusion? Concern? Alarm?

For me….. it’s grief.
On one hand, I want to be able to just move on. But the social media over-saturation alone inundates us daily with posts and conversations of the topic. We’re flooded with a constant barrage of all-things-enneagram. From serious recommendations as to how helpful and transformative it promises to be for you and your relationships, to funny memes and playful quizzes scattered throughout our stories, it continually beckons to us for more self-knowledge, more self-discovery, more “freedom”. Simply because it is so widespread, and because it is now endorsed and promoted by so many people (including many you may love and trust), most people choose to either dive in or simply brush it off.

I have wanted to brush it off for so many reasons, but I just can’t.

My spirit has a heaviness that I cannot shake.

It’s been almost three years since I wrote a blog about the enneagram.
In it I shared my personal experience with spiritual formation…

I walked through a door called the enneagram.
I gazed in the mirror of self to find freedom.
I struggled through a room of oppression.
I woke up sitting inside of a building of syncretism.

New Age had infused my Christianity with another gospel.

The iceberg was a New Age gospel; the enneagram was just the tip.

Still disoriented from the shock, I wrote that blog in an effort to be obedient. Although I would write it a little differently today, here it is for reference. (link)

A few weeks afterward, still stunned, not yet fully understanding the weight of what had happened, a certain familiar phrase came into my mind. The Lord then said to me,

“Who told you that?”

I gave Him the answer.

“But did I say that?” He asked.

“No.” I thought to myself. “Actually, You did not.”

And then the questions began.

If the books I had been reading weren’t fully true…
If some of the teaching I heard wasn’t fully true…
Then what ELSE wasn’t true?
And how would I even know?

**I have to say here that I deeply sympathize with those who deconstruct their faith, to those who attempt to undo lies and make sense of truth! Sometimes that may be a necessary thing to do. But realize you’re vulnerable. The enemy lies in waiting, ready to prey on that vulnerability, seeking whom he may devour. The disorientation and disillusionment that come when dismantling things so foundational makes us an easy target to be deceived and further exploited. It is easy to run away from one false thing straight into the arms of a different deception. There is really only one pure place to go for truth –
the Bible.

So… that’s where I ran.

I started by putting down every other book and reading the Bible cover to cover, with no commentary, in just a few months time. It was stunning to read the words for what they were, no other opinions, just letting the emphasis be what it is, and not what I had at times made it.
His Word washed me.

It was the beginning of doing something I had failed to do very well before,
which was to test and weigh every word I’d ever heard against the Word of God, and like the Bereans, search the scripture to find out whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11) I’ve spent the last three years re-examining what I’ve believed, heard, read, promoted, taught, sang about, everything…
under the lens of His Word. I know this will continue to be a lifelong process.

The biggest result has been I’ve fallen in love with the gospel all over again.
There aren’t enough words to describe the magnitude of the power of the gospel of Jesus and the joy of the good news that we have been given.

But I was also very grieved over my sin, including how I may have influenced someone else or misrepresented God in some way. I still feel the fear of God over this, and it is part of what compels me. These words of Jesus have pierced me deeply.

“ …Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.  It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble”. (Luke 17:1-2)

Although Jesus often refers to children in His teachings, many commentaries say that “little ones” in this passage refers to “little ones who believe in Me”, i.e., those who have become like a child in their faith, or those who are spiritually young, weaker in their faith, unassuming believers.

We have all been the little ones, and many of us have also had influence over little ones. God’s love is so great and His protection is so fierce! He will leave the 99 to go after the one who has wandered off, but woe to the one who led that little sheep astray.

“to cause to stumble”
skandalizó: To put a stumbling block or impediment in the way, upon which another may trip and fall; to be a stumbling block, to entice to sin, to be offended. b. To cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey; to cause to fall away. (Thayers)

This word skandalizō means “stumbling block” or “snare.” The term refers to the trigger that springs a trap; anything that hinders someone from doing what is right, causes one to sin, or causes someone to fall away from the faith. (Carpen)

It remains heavy on my heart: the weight of ever misusing my influence leading anyone astray, misrepresenting the truth of the gospel in any way, causing anyone to stumble. This is a weighty thing, and where I have gotten it wrong, I am so sorry! If in doing so I have been a stumbling block to you in anything, I sincerely ask you for forgiveness.

 

TWO

Here are my concerns:

1. We’re adopting premises we assume to be true (because someone told us they were) and building on them without vetting the initial truth claim.

Once we buy into one presupposition without weighing it, if false, we are already on the road to deception. We work from that point/belief to further error because we assumed the starting premise was true. Approaching the enneagram as if it is true: (i.e there are nine personality types, you actually fit into one, you have a true self and a false self, etc.) is our first mistake. Once we buy in, it begins to feel true, and we entertain it more and more, all building on a premise that we assume is valid.

We need to test and weigh up front before we build upon it. This is where discernment is most critical because once we adopt something as true, it’s harder for us to see otherwise.

2. We’re underestimating our influences and the effect of repeated exposure.

The many voices around us- the authors, artists, programs, podcasts, social media, and the like have messages. The constant repetition can have a cumulative effect to move the needle a little, specifically to conform us to culture. We may underestimate that media can change our minds. It may not happen immediately; it’s often a slow process, but over time, if we are hit with repeated messages, we can bend to them and not even realize we’ve been influenced. The reason influencers have platforms is because it works. We may be more susceptible to cultural inclinations and trends than we realize. Some of what we do, buy, or even think, may be precisely because we were swayed to do so. If we are also overestimating our ability to discern apart from the Word, we are most likely being formed in ways we can’t recognize.

3. We’re underestimating our vulnerability to be sold the message of SELF.

“My dear Wormwood…the following methods are useful… keep his mind on the inner life. He thinks his conversion is something INSIDE him and his attention is chiefly turned at present to the states of his own mind.”                                              The Screwtape Letters, C.S.Lewis

To be sure, the setting of the story we live in has in its background the constant drip from the faucet called self. What we might not see is that many of us are unwittingly susceptible to flattery and manipulation – to being sold and enticed by this message. Individually it varies, but as a society, we love ourselves. We’re kind of obsessed with ourselves. Regardless of the many reasons we are beguiled by it, that vulnerability is being exploited by anyone who can profit from us, especially from the enemy of our souls. When we put our eyes on ourself too long we become prey. We need to know that. Self is the easiest clickbait there is, and we don’t always discern the motive behind it or the malware attached to it.

The siren of self will call to us. Our answer matters.

As altruistic as the motive for self-awareness may be, self is not the focus of the Christian life. God is. And after Him, others.
Have we gotten this backward?

There is such a beautiful, powerful identity for the believer of who we are in Christ that is so secure and stunning! But the context of identity is reflected in His great love for us. Because He died for us, we die with Him. It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. When we are raised with Him, our focus, our worship, is no longer self. God has AMAZING identity for us! But we find it in and through Him.

As the saying goes, “You can’t know God unless you know yourself.”
This is false. You know God through the Holy Spirit and His Word.

The mystical service market is now a 2 billion-dollar-a-year industry in America. (source)

Astrology is gaining popularity. In a radio interview with WBUR Boston, astrologist Chani Nicolas, said she believes the resurgence is because “astrology is perfect content for memes.”

“I think that astrology is the perfect content for memes. It’s very sharable. And human beings really want to know about ourselves. I want you to tell me something where I’m like, ‘Oh my god, that’s so me. I relate to that.’ And so when you have a meme with like all of the signs on it, let’s say, then you can like tag all your friends and everyone can kind of be dragged and loved up a little bit the same time. And because we’re living in such a social media-saturated moment, I feel that astrology is like this perfect fit of self-reflection, humor and identification.”

“And people really need to know, is there some reason for this? And astrology is one lens.” (source)

Nicholas says, “…astrology is one lens.”

I submit the enneagram is another one.

It’s a lens to see yourself, others, and the world, but it’s not a Biblical lens.
The enneagram is about self.
And at the core…  self as part of the divine, or god.

That’s probably not what you believe, or how you use it (because certainly that assertion is purposely veiled toward the church audience), but when you take it out of the Christian circles to which it has migrated, that is unapologetically the whole point: to get rid of the ego covering and through awareness, awaken and release the god-self into freedom.

This is quintessential New Age. A Course in Miracles, one of the primary New Age texts, teaches the same: this ego is what blocks the “christ” within you.

Whatever the motive, however well-intentioned it may be, self-focus can lead to self-obsession, and at some point, self-worship.

4. We are failing to recognize the worldview behind some things in which we engage.

If we asked these questions, we would do well:
What is the worldview here? And how does it compare to a Biblical worldview?

The worldview of the enneagram is pantheism or panentheism.
Neither are compatible with Biblical Christianity.

The short definitions of these are:
Pantheism- all is God
Panentheism- all is in God.
Pan (all) en (in) theism (God)

The easiest explanation is that panentheism is a combination of theism (God is supreme) and pantheism (God is everything). (source)

The idea of panentheism as a worldview is that God is distinct from His creation but lives in everything, that His Spirit lives inside of all He created. The assertion is that there is a divine spark inside all humanity; that spark is of God (or is God) and simply needs to be uncovered or simply remembered.

The New Age teaching of true/false self comes from this belief that the “false self” must be shed so that the “true self” can emerge since the true self is divine and simply needs to be “freed” or “remembered”. You just need to remember you were good and divine all along.

This is not a Biblical worldview. God is omnipresent, but His Spirit does not indwell everything. Although He created every person in His image, and He deeply loves every person He created, His Spirit does not indwell people until they accept His Son. (John 14:17) Not everyone is a child of God. (link:  All God’s Children)

In no way and at no time are we divine; only God is divine. We are human, and as humans we are broken, in desperate need of a Savior, and cannot save ourselves. Jesus is the only one who can save us. The fact that He can save us, that He loves us so much that He does save us, and that He sent His Spirit to dwell in us as the guarantee of His return, IS the good news of the Gospel! As believers, He lives with us, in us, so close in union, yes… but we are never divine. To say that we are is heretical.

And it is also cruel. What a fantastic lie to tell people. If they can believe that they are divine and work hard to polish that up, it hides their truest need for a Savior.

Panentheism has many arms through a long history and gets very complicated as it has interwoven itself in philosophies throughout centuries, but when you hold them up together, it is not compatible with a Biblical worldview.

Gnosticism was a heretical philosophy challenging the early church in the first and second centuries and still continues in different forms today. Among other things, they believed in a divine spark in each person which was to be realized through special or hidden gnosis, (knowledge), in particular, esoteric knowledge.

Isn’t it interesting that secret knowledge was the temptation that gave way to the first sin in the garden? It is also the same temptation of gnosticism: freedom by way of secret knowledge, which is the same thing promised by the enneagram. Intentionally, they hold the same lie at the end… You can be as God.

His question in the garden was, “Who told you that?”
He is still asking the same question.

The same lies keep getting repackaged, rebranded, and reimagined, but we do not become as God through secret knowledge. We grow in God with the knowledge of God.

If you’ve noticed, there’s a compulsion to share it, to teach it. There’s a lust for more.
Such is the way in secret knowledge. It’s never enough. There is no end.

Two points you may not know:

I won’t spend time in detail of the history and origin which hold confusion and controversy. (here’s a thoroughly researched work on it: link), but I’ll leave two points I think have been most intentionally hidden from Christians.

• The enneagram of personality (for which people are using it the most) came to occultist Claudio Naranjo in the 1960’s via spirit channeling. (in his own words: video).   Really, enough said.

• The symbolism of the enneagram itself reveals the inherent worldview. According to Catholic priest,  Fr. Mitch Pacwa (one of the original students of the enneagram of personality), the enneagram is very symbolic. He says,

“The circle symbolizes the world (or the cosmos, the oneness of all being, the wholeness of all being). Inside this circle are other drawings. One is a triangle. The triangle also symbolizes God…God is INSIDE the cosmos. God is contained by the universe in this symbolism rather than God embracing the universe and the universe being inside God. This system is inherently pantheistic.” (source)

Before Pacwa realized it was New Age and denounced it, he taught the enneagram in Catholic retreats. Among others, he taught it to Fr. Richard Rohr (who had subsequent teachers as well), and Rohr wrote the first book tying the enneagram to a Christian perspective in 1989, prescribing it for spiritual formation. He became the primary mentor to all authors writing the modern books on the topic geared toward the Church.

I would be remiss here if I didn’t say Richard Rohr is one of the authors I read who actively syncretized the gospel. If you love Rohr, I ask you, in utmost love, to please hold up what he is saying against the Word to see if these things are really so. His interview with Oprah wraps up his beliefs well. (link to interview)

5. We’ve gotten confused about sanctification.

One of the names of God is Adonai M’Keddesh, the Lord who sanctifies you. (Lev. 20:7-8) His names reveal both who He is and what He does.

As believers, “[w]e have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all.” (Heb. 10:10) The process/progress part of our sanctification, of spiritual maturity, comes in a participation with God over a lifetime where He leads and we respond in love and obedience.

Godly sanctification flows from a source. The source is Him.

Jesus even prayed for us in this,
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:17)

Our desire for growth is good! It is from God!

But… it is GOD who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Phil 2:13)

If we can CIRCUMVENT God in our sanctification, then by default, we have stepped into deception. We can not do it apart from Him.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. (Psalm 23:3b)

The enneagram is a heavy yoke, an unending effort of works-based spirituality.

It is for freedom that He set us free.
The enneagram can not free us.
Only Jesus’ blood can do that.

The enneagram cannot discern our heart and motives.
Only God can do that.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints, and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb. 4:12)

He discerns our hearts, by His Spirit.

Without this, we are circumventing God in our lives.
And seeking secret spiritual knowledge or insight apart from the source of God… is divination.

In closing, we have so many areas in our faith that are matters of our conscience, where one conscience allows and another doesn’t… freedom issues. I don’t think the enneagram is one of them. The enneagram is a gnostic tool with a panentheistic worldview, the majority of which came through a spirit guide, and its an on-ramp to another gospel.
I urge you, throw it off, like the heavy weight that it is, and let’s run the race in the simplicity of the gospel, where He leads us in paths of righteousness as the only wise God.

*If you do decide this is a freedom issue, please consider, in love, the little ones for whom it might lead astray.

May we grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. (2 Peter 3:18)

 

Additional resources:

On Panentheism:
Alisa Childers podcast: Panentheism:   Part 1 &  Part 2
with Marcia Montenegro.

Panentheism, The Other God of the Philosophers  by John W. Cooper- This is a strong academic (very dense) source which is an in depth look into panentheism from Plato forward, juxtaposed to a biblical worldview: link

On Spiritual Formation:
A well-researched book on the history of spiritual formation and the syncretism therein. Silent Man, Silent God by Chris & Adrienne Warner, Brandon & Janet Medina, Isaac & Stephanie Crabtree   Free download from TheologyThinkTank.  link

On the Enneagram:
The most researched resource on the history and evolution that’s probably available- book coming out May 13, 2020, Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret by Marcia Montenegro and Don Vienot.  link