Book 18: The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard
Rohr and Andreas Ebert
For those of you who like to spend time figuring out what
personality type you are, here’s a new perspective – the Christian perspective,
as the subtitle suggests. Based on the ancient personality-type system of the
Enneagram, the authors divide personalities into nine different types, based on
the seven deadly sins plus two more character defects that apparently didn’t
make the final cut. These are further segmented into three “centers”: heart,
head and gut.
To determine your type, you must take a test. However,
although the book is over 250 pages long, the test is not included. I had to
resort to my favorite spiritual leader, Father Google, to steer me in the right
direction. Or the wrong direction … who knows? There were so many choices
online, it was hard to determine which ones were authentic. But I figured the
free ones were more authentic than the ones you had to pay for, so I selected
one and started answering about 180 questions.
I took the Enneagram test on two separate occasions. The
first time I discovered that I was a Type 1 (Need to be Perfect) with a Type 3 “wing”
(Need to Succeed). That made total sense. Then I took it again when I was in a somewhat
negative mood and the results showed me to be a Type 8 (Need to be Against)
with a Type 1 “wing” (that perfectionist thing again). Since Type 1 seemed
dominant to me, I took that to be the most accurate personality assessment.
This was based on no scientific method whatsoever, just my own feelings, which
I would imagine is its fatal flaw.
As with most attempts to pigeonhole personalities, this one
hits some high points but falls short in other areas. For example: Yes, I’m a
perfectionist and get angry when things don’t go right in the world, but I am
not a serious person who seldom tells jokes. (Just read a few of my blogs and
you should figure that out.) But I did have a few aha moments while reading the
description of Type 1.
What to do with this knowledge? Well, the point of the book
was to show how to enhance one’s spirituality based on the personality type.
And quite honestly, I was looking for a little more in the way of specifics
here. Instead, the direction was more along the lines of “learn that there isn’t
just one right way” (duh) and “don’t take yourself so seriously” (remind me of
that the next time I do something stupid). It all seemed like the usual rubric.
I was hoping to be given more of a laundry list, kinda like old-school penance:
Say three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys and you’re cool for the rest of the
week. But then that’s very Type 1 of me, isn’t it?
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