You’re probably saying, “What????” We reacted the same way. That’s why we’d love your response to the video by Alisa Childers at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqh4XTDVboc. In it, she asks, “Is the Enneagram a harmless personality test or is it something that could be spiritually harmful to Christians who use it?” Is she overreacting? What’s your take? (Thanks Jenny!)
6) Could the Enneagram Be Spiritually Harmful?
definitely seen it be harmful. When the focus is on you and what you need and what you deserve and how other people should treat you, it can be harmful. But when it helps you know how God has made you so that you might better serve and go to him it is helpful. When it helps get to know others better, love them well, communicate more effectively it can be very helpful to any relationship or team. Enneagram is not truth ; it is a tool and it is best used to love and lead others well.
Totally unnecessary, horrid foundations, great potential danger!
The Gospel Coalition published an online article in 2018 entitled “What Christians Should Know about the Enneagram (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-faqs-what-christians-should-know-about-the-enneagram/). In that article, they suggested the following: “The earliest mention of the Enneagram is found in the writings of the Russian occultist P. D. Ouspensky, who attributes it to his teacher, the Greek American occultist Georges I. Gurdjieff. Gurdjieff considered the Enneagram a symbol of the cosmos, but made no connection with it to personality types. It was left to another occultist, Óscar Ichazo, to connect the Enneagram to personality. Ichazo claimed to have discovered the personality type meaning of the Enneagram when it was taught to him by the Archangel Metraton while he was high on mescaline.” The article goes on to conclude that “We definitely should be concerned when the Enneagram is being used, as many Catholics have, as a form of Gnostic-based numerology. We shouldn’t be seeking divination from a tool that was developed by someone who claims it was handed to him in a vision from what sounds suspiciously like a demon.” So, if the article is accurate, then why would Christians want anything to do with the Enneagram?
Like any other research, it is dependent how you use it. It is helpful in that we can see how our needs and fears drive behavior and without going to Christ and the Word, how easily we slip into sin! We know a spirit medium in the Philippines who went into a Satanic trance using the Apostle’s Creed! Sometimes the facts are amoral, but how you use them can totally be sinful!!
As a clinical psychologist, I’m shocked and horrified by how the Enneagram has been adopted by the Christian community – especially by those who work in member care. Even if you don’t look at it’s questionable roots, it’s not scientifically normed and you don’t really know what you’re getting with a score. Use with caution (if at all).