An Ecumenical Enneagram
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008Well, that is what I am hoping to come up with as I go through all this preparation.
As I first tried to chart my course for digging deep into the Enneagram I looked for a conference or some sort of training to go to as my Continuing Education for the year. I found a couple interesting trainings out there and decided that I was interested in Helen Palmer’s Enneagram in the Narrative Tradition training (still am actually). However, the cost was beyond what my budget would allow me to consider at this time. Actually, the cost of any of the training courses was beyond my budget.
So that meant Independent Research (translated: read a bunch of books).
One thing I noticed as I researched what books to use for research was that there were some pretty distinct schools of thought amongst Enneagram authors and teachers. And amongst those schools of thought there was little love lost. I actually found that somewhat ironic (and familiar). Amongst authors and teachers of a tool that is meant to help guide us beyond the pettiness of the personality and a limited view of reality, I saw the power of pride and prejudice that led to factions and animosity (and lawsuits). I had to laugh: where else in my life have I experienced people who seek to gather together for the betterment of the world and people in the world descending to petty battles and entrenched attitudes that detract from and almost nullify the source of the movement? Anyone? You in the back-yes, the Christian Church is the correct answer … sadly.
Well, I am a bit of an ecumenical Christian having lived and been influenced by major schools of Christian thought: Baptist, Calvinist, Wesleyan, Quaker, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, contemplative, socially active, spirituality based, even a touch of pentacostal. So I have been trying to gather from the wide variety of perspectives on the Enneagram that I can. Many of those are listed on my blogroll in the sidebar. Soon I will post a list of the major sources just to help me keep track.
One thing I have found is that while I have a number of books and articles that lay out the personality traits and activities associated with each Enneagram type (Riso and Hudson, Rohr), I am most drawn to those books and authors that go down to the roots of the Enneagram and the development of the personality fractures and traps (Almaas and Maitri). The value is that I don’t have to focus on memorizing a lot of lists and ideas without a context to put them in. What I find myself doing is finding the bedrock and laying the foundations that will make it easier to remember the details and even go beyond anyone’s lists to see type and then to respond to type.
This is parallel to my work with spirituality. With my wide experience with different families in the Christian tradition it would be so easy to get lost in the detail and I think the church has truly got lost in the details substituting a focus on the form of our faith while losing sight of the substance of our faith. Spirituality is one of those foundational and ecumenical activities that can (if we can let go of the schools of thought divisions) provide a path to be a part of God’s healing the church (mission and service are another one of those foundational and ecumenical activities that can unite).
Well, enough behind the scenes posting. My next one will begin to focus on the bedrock I am building my foundations on.
