Should Christians Use The Enneagram?
The growing popularity of the Enneagram has caused Christians to start asking whether it’s a helpful tool or whether it’s too conflicted in its origins. Before some critics dismiss the Enneagram because of the growing hype or because the symbol reminds us of a pentagram, let's see if we can come up with some helpful answers to the most critical questions some people are asking.
DOES THE ENNEAGRAM PUT TOO MUCH FOCUS ON SELF?
We can't change what we aren't aware of. John Calvin began his Institutes of the Christian Religion by asserting that we need a "knowledge of God and of ourselves."[i] But this pursuit must be balanced. Self-awareness is not the end but themeans to cultivating a deeper union with God our Father.
Unlike other personality tests that seek to describe only our characteristics, the Enneagram's aim is to reveal our core fears and needs. It reveals the God-substitutes in our lives. As Tim Keller points out, "The most profound kind of self-knowledge you can know is the particular strategies you have for running and hiding from God."
The Enneagram is also helpful because it makes general sins specific to us. I heard one pastor say that the Enneagram is useful for "sniper sanctification."[ii] In other words, God can use the Enneagram to place crosshairs on some of the root sins and strategies in our lives.
We must remember the Holy Spirit, not self-awareness, fuels sanctification. As the Apostle Paul said, even the most self-aware person in the world has "the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out" (Rom. 7:18). Self-awareness is not enough; we need the power of the gospel. Pastor John Fooshee teaches that a Christian does not live for their perfection, acceptance, success, significance, wisdom, security, joy, strength, and peace but from Christ's.
IS THE ENNEAGRAM A CHRISTIAN-BASED TOOL?
Some Enneagram authors have claimed that the roots of the Enneagram can be traced back to the Christian monk Evagrius as well as the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the fourth century. It's hard to know for sure because there isn't a lot of clear evidence. The first mention of the Enneagram was by Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky, who attributed it to his teacher, the Greek-American philosopher Georges I. Gurdjieff. Later on, Bolivian-born Óscar Ichazo expanded on the Enneagram and taught what he knew to Chilean-born psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo. Naranjo claims he was the first to connect the Enneagram to nine basic personality types (Enneatypes) according to a June 2010 interview.
Naranjo taught the Enneagram to spiritual leaders such as Fr. Robert Ochs who then passed it along to various Christian communities, where it was picked up by Jerome Wagner, Don Riso, and Richard Rohr. In an interview with Ian Morgan Cron, Rohr explained that he was told by his spiritual director that laypeople could not handle the Enneagram with care and wisdom and was entreated not to pass it on. But after Helen Palmer wrote a book that made the Enneagram public knowledge, he decided to break his silence.
Suzanne Stabile, from the United Methodist tradition, was a student of Fr. Rohr and began teaching the Enneagram herself. In 2016, Stabile teamed up with Cron to co-write the widely popular primer The Road Back To You, which has launched the Enneagram into Protestant circles.
Jeff and Beth McCord, founders of Your Enneagram Coach, which has seen one million people take their Enneagram assessment, have taught thousands of people the Enneagram through a gospel-centered lens. Richard Plass and Jim Cofield of Crosspoint Ministry have trained many pastors and leaders on the Enneagram from a Christ-centered perspective including John Fooshee. Fooshee has partnered with the Acts 29 US Southeast region to utilize the Enneagram in church-planter assessments.
IS THE ENNEAGRAM DANGEROUS AS A SPIRITUAL TOOL?
Pastor Kevin DeYoung suggests the most troubling reality about the Enneagram is that it's been "infused with spiritual significance." He makes the case that if the Enneagram were just another StrengthsFinder tool it wouldn't be a big deal. But, because of its mixed spiritual sources, we should pause and ask: Where (if anywhere) is the Enneagram at odds with the language of Scripture? What spiritual language could be confusing or misleading for Christians?
While views vary from different Enneagram teachers, the following chart gives my best attempt to answer those questions with a highly-generalized summary.
Understanding these differences will, I think, serve us well as we read books and listen to podcasts because different Enneagram authors are all over the spectrum between a biblical and secular worldview.
IS THE ENNEAGRAM REDEEMABLE?
I believe the very best of what we've received about the Enneagram that Christians are benefiting from today comes from modern advances in the field of psychology. Naranjo was an intelligent, well-trained, and well-studied psychologist who started out as a medical doctor and later moved into psychiatry. After leaving Chile, he came to America to dive into the study of personality, first at Harvard as a visiting scholar and later at Berkeley. He learned under many well-known philosophers such as Paul Tillich.
The most problematic thing about Naranjo is that he claimed to receive the Enneagram Types through a practice called automatic writing whereby you relax your mind and allow messages to flow through you from either a subconscious or divine source. Even more problematic is that Naranjo's teacher, Óscar Ichazo, claimed to receive knowledge from an archangel.
Let's just get to the heart of the matter and ask the question: If some of the Enneagram’s origins do have occultist roots—should this fact alone be enough for Christians to stop using the Enneagram?
Dr. Dennis E. Johnson helps us see that biblical authors such as Solomon made use of knowledge from Israel's neighbors, with one example being the "striking parallels between the Book of Proverbs and sayings preserved in non-Israelite wisdom literature."[iii] Johnson cites an excerpt from Tremper Longman's Introduction to the Old Testament where Psalm 23:4-5 is shown to be virtually the same as an Egyptian proverb.[iv] J.B Pritchard also gives more examples like these in The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures.[v]
Johnson admits it is debatable whether Solomon influenced Egypt or Egypt influenced Solomon, but the fact remains: non-biblical wisdom literature that corresponds to our Scriptures is evidence of God's common grace—even in Israel's occultist neighbors.
In the pluralistic world in which the New Testament came about we see John describing Jesus Christ as the incarnate Logos to connect the dots for ancient esoteric thinkers (Jn. 1:1). We see the Apostle Paul studying up on the false gods that surrounded him—idols created from demonic or very questionable sources to say the least. Paul made use of them in debates, directing his audience to an idol dedicated to an unknown god as a way of pointing the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers to a known Savior (Acts 17:16-33).
Abbot David Geraets noted that “the fathers of the church who came after St. Paul made use of pagan philosophies, especially Platonism and Stoicism, to explain the Christian message in a language people could understand” and centuries later “St. Thomas Aquinas, seeing the revival of Aristotelianism in the powerful Muslim culture, rephrased Christian teaching in that idiom.”[vi]Aquinas held that some of Aristotle's ideas were true, but not entirely true, and brought them under biblical revelation.
With all this in mind, Johnson concludes that Christians should be aware of a "kneejerk rejection of ideas, perspectives, arguments, or evidence simply because their source is non-Christian" and to check whether or not our condemnation is "a symptom of intellectual laziness or insecure defensiveness, seeking an easy escape from the arduous and sometimes puzzling task of exercising biblical discernment."[vii]
DOES THE ENNEAGRAM HELP OR HINDER OUR EVANGELISM?
If St. Augustine were around today, he might urge us to see and use the great cultural moment we have in front of us to point people to God. James K.A. Smith points out in his book On the Road with Saint Augustine that the bishop was asking many of the same questions on his journey to Rome (articulated in his Confessions) that many postmodern thinkers are now asking.
On this road, Augustine shifted his focus from the outward world to his inward self. The road he took was one of self-examination. But for him, this journey of self-reflection, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, doesn't lead us to pride but rather greater knowledge of our inherent limitations. On this road of searching for the true self, if you get to the very end, you will find God.
After decades of the church deploying reason-based apologetics, the door is wide open for us to use a self-awareness tool like the Enneagram to connect hearts and minds within a culture that has split itself.
CAN THE ENNEAGRAM SAVE US?
The Enneagram is appealing because it promises spiritual freedom through self-knowledge. Claudio Naranjo claimed that all human beings long for liberation. But psychology's path of salvation comes only through greater self-knowledge and the end of the road is a "better you." That destination falls far short of the Christian gospel.
Whereas the Enneagram may be able to diagnose our core fears and needs, only the gospel can provide the treatment. Our ultimate hope is not grounded in psychology but an actual person—Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1:30). That's why Garrett J. DeWeese, in his book Doing Philosophy as a Christian, says, “true wisdom is Christocentric in its origin and application.”[viii] DeWeese further asserts we must engage psychology “in a way that aims intentionally at the ultimate goal of personal transformation into the image of Christ."[ix]
Therefore, as we use the Enneagram, let's make sure the road that we are on leads to Jesus.
Tyler Zach is the co-lead pastor of Citylight Benson Church. He is the author of The Gospel For Achievers: A 40-Day Devotional for Driven, Successful Go-Getters. Tyler lives in Omaha, Nebraska with his beloved wife, two adopted sons and goldendoodle. He is passionate about using the Enneagram as a diagnostic tool for spiritual formation and proclaiming the good news of the gospel as our only hope. You can stay up to date on forthcoming Enneagram devotionals on Instagram (@gospelforennagram) or on Twitter (@gospelforgram).
Article Notes:
[i] Jean Calvin and Donald K. McKim, Calvin's Institutes (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 1.
[ii] “Darrin & Amie Patrick - Enneagram,” Liberty University, accessed November 13, 2020, https://watch.liberty.edu/media/t/1_xo6zn0yb.
[iii] “Spiritual Antithesis: Common Grace, and Practical Theology,” Westminster Seminary California, accessed November 13, 2020, https://wscal.edu/resource-center/spiritual-antithesis-common-grace-and-practical-theology.
[iv] Raymond B. Dillard and Tremper Longman III, An Introduction to the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 241.
[v] J. B. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East, vol. 1: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958), 234-49.
[vi] Abbot David Geraets, “Is the Enneagram Dangerous? An Exchange between Abbot David Geraets and Fr. Mitch Pacwa,” New Covenant (July/August 1991), pp. 20-24.
[vii] “Spiritual Antithesis: Common Grace, and Practical Theology,” Westminster Seminary California, accessed November 13, 2020, https://wscal.edu/resource-center/spiritual-antithesis-common-grace-and-practical-theology.
[vii] Garrett J. Deweese, Doing Philosophy as a Christian (Downers Grove (IL): IVP Academic, 2011), 63.
[ix] Ibid, 67.