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AR 25:22 - Why the Enneagram is "hot" (and when it's not)
In this issue:
POP-PSYCHOLOGY - Christians are dividing over the Enneagram
WORLDVIEW - By their alignment charts you will know them
Apologia Report 25:22 (1,479)
June 2, 2020
POP-PSYCHOLOGY
"The Enneagram is having a moment. You can thank millennials," by Marisa Gerber -- begins by recounting the experience of Emily Rickard, a self-described Christian with "a master's in psychology and a longtime fascination with personality inventories (think: Myers-Briggs), so she couldn't believe that there was a system she hadn't heard of" until she discovered the Enneagram.
Described as a "contagious" experience for most millennials, Gerber notes how Google shows "the number of people looking up 'Enneagram' hovered at the same level until 2017, when it spiked drastically, topping out last summer." This boom "is part of the same contemporary phenomenon that some observers connect to the resurgence of astrology - in turbulent times, some people find comfort in the rituals of their religion or other, less traditional, belief systems. When the world feels especially chaotic, said Fran Grace, a professor of religious studies at the University of Redlands, we crave tools that help us change the one thing we can control - ourselves."
Rickard "finds the model less stagnant and more growth-oriented than other personality systems and believes that it will stand the test of time. ...
"Personality tests, skeptics have long argued, are nothing more than pseudoscience that create a buyer-beware world of little regulation where anyone can call themselves an expert.
"The Enneagram itself has ancient, but murky, roots: Some adherents trace it back to a 4th century monk and the same underlying concept as the seven deadly sins. Others see similarities between the Enneagram's nine-pointed figure and a symbol used in ancient Sufism."
Gerber believes that the newly popular "modern interpretation is credited to Bolivian-born philosopher Oscar Ichazo [founder <www.bit.ly/2XlplcG> of the Arica School], and one of his students, a Berkeley-based psychiatrist, who, in the 1970s, helped popularize the Enneagram in the U.S. By 1994, the model had gained at least enough credence that Stanford Medical School's psychiatry department co-sponsored the first International Enneagram Conference, drawing more than a thousand people to Palo Alto.
"From there, the framework found pockets of popularity with self-help devotees and in Corporate America, where some companies used the tool to build rapport among employees. It also gained traction in some Christian circles, propelled, in part, by a book on the topic by an influential Franciscan priest <www.bit.ly/36CPXHi> named Richard Rohr. Then, thanks to millennials, it exploded into the mainstream in the last few years. In many ways the tool, which isn't tied to a specific religion, seems tailor-made for a spiritual-but-not-religious generation that grew up on BuzzFeed quizzes and branding.
"Enneagram evangelists tout it as a self-discovery tool that will help you understand your strengths and limitations, spot patterns you fall into during stress and communicate more clearly. It's not about fundamentally altering yourself or trying to morph into another type - that, they'll remind you, is impossible anyway - but about living more consciously with the hand you've been dealt. ...
"'There's no overarching body that says, "You can't say you're an Enneagram expert,"' said Micky ScottBey Jones, 42, a Nashville-area Enneagram trainer, who got certified through an extensive online program taught by the School of Conscious Living in Cincinnati.
"The lack of quality control is problematic, Jones acknowledged, because someone with only a cursory understanding of the Enneagram could call themselves a trainer and start charging money. And when the tool is used without nuance, she said, discussions can devolve into deterministic stereotypes." (That last line seems fitting for a description of the 21st century so far. - RP)
"Think of the lines on the Enneagram figure as arrows explaining the directions each personality type moves in times of stress and growth. ...
"Some Christians are leery about the Enneagram because it's not derived directly from the Bible, Rickard said, but that doesn't bother her - or her husband, a pastor at a nondenominational Christian church. Nothing about it contradicts their beliefs, she says, or those of any of the other world religions she's studied." Los Angeles Times, Apr 22 '20, <www.bit.ly/2M51VBU>
Actually, lots of Christians "are leery about the Enneagram" and for a variety of reasons. Here are a few resources:
* - Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret, by Don Veinot, Joy Veinot and Marcia Montenegro [1] -- this new book challenges unproven theories of the Enneagram's origins and demonstrates that once again "spiritual, but not religious" can be dangerously unbiblical <www.bit.ly/2Xf1nj7>
* - "Practice Biblical Distancing" by John Haller -- on "the origins and dangers of the Enneagram, a 'tool' derived from ancient and mystical teachings" <www.bit.ly/2XKId3R
* - "Tell Me Who I Am, O Enneagram" by Mitchell Pacwa, S.J. -- discusses its "false, Gnostic theology and occultic roots" <www.bit.ly/3gKa6lk>
* - "The FAQs: What Christians Should Know About the Enneagram" by Joe Carter <www.bit.ly/2TJInaw>
Last, Zondervan recently introduced a new film - their first ever - featuring Enneagram advocate Christopher L. Heuertz: "Nine: The Enneagram Documentary" - due in theaters this fall. According to Zondervan's press release, Heuertz provocatively claims that the "Enneagram reveals both the ways you get lost and the ways you find your way home to your True Self and to God." <www.bit.ly/2B8YuId>
Visit <www.bit.ly/3ct9UTT> to see how the Enneagram has been treated in our past issues.
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WORLDVIEW
"A Chart to Explain Your Entire Worldview" by Kaitlyn Tiffany -- how "alignment charts" have become a way for millennials to categorize just about everything. While nothing in this item directly suggests that alignment charts are supposed to be taken tongue-in-cheek, there's a lot to be learned from the generalizations of any culture or era.
"How do you keep track of what page you're on in a book?
"The answer tells you everything you need to know about the moral lens through which you view the world. At least, according to a chart that was widely circulated on Twitter last month (and originally shared on Tumblr). The axes of the nine-square grid - lawful, neutral, chaotic across the top; good, neutral, evil down the side - assign expansive significance to each choice. ...
"The grid comes from the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, but has been long divorced from that context. ...
"The two-axis moral-alignment chart appeared in a 1977 version of the Dungeons & Dragons handbook, three years after the game was first released. In the game, players select a moral alignment for their characters at the start, to guide the way that they will make decisions throughout. It's meant to prevent people from behaving randomly, and gives the story some structure."
From here Tiffany discusses the mechanics of alignment charts as well as their history. "According to Google Search Trends, interest in alignment charts started increasing sharply in November 2016. The desire to align everything has gotten measurably more powerful in the years since the last presidential election, which have been marked by polarization and the use of Harry Potter metaphors to describe real-world events."
Are we dealing with the creation of in-house shibboleths? Game researcher Richard Bartle "argues that moral alignment is useful for role-playing games because, in face-to-face gameplay, there's a referee - the Dungeon Master - who is empowered to say when violations occur and to penalize players. Moral decisions occur along a clearly outlined spectrum.
"The internet is much less tidy. Bartle recommends against using an alignment chart in a virtual space or online game because, on the internet, 'much of what is good or evil, lawful or chaotic, is intangible.' ...
"The first time Dungeons & Dragons was popular, moms and media outlets spent a few years hand-wringing about its overtones of Satanism and witchcraft. But the game persisted by reimagining war and strategy games, then in vogue; it was more about developing characters and exploring moral choices than it was about mass destruction or colonialism. (In the 1989 edition, some of the demon stuff was removed.) Its vocabulary has remained common even outside of the game because it proposes that life *might* [emphasis ours - AR] be made up of logical choices. Even outside of the charts themselves, the internet-fluent frequently describe things as 'chaotic good' or 'lawful evil.' ...
"Today, it's fairly obvious why people would gravitate toward something a little bit witchy but morally clear-eyed. Americans' trust in each other and in most institutions is declining. A little clarity is a treat. But while a nine-grid chart is more nuanced than 'good' and 'bad,' it's unnaturally tidy all the same. There are infinite ways to conduct yourself in the world, and no rules that force you to be consistent." The Atlantic, Mar 5 '20, <www.bit.ly/2yHsZUM>
Do you find it interesting that the idea of judgmentalism did not come up? Check out this biblical alignment chart: Matthew 7:16
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SOURCES: Monographs
Richard Rohr and the Enneagram Secret, by Don Veinot, Joy Veinot and Marcia Montenegro (MCOI, 2020, paperback, 154 pages) <www.amzn.to/3ewMcrm>
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