Reflection on Genesis, the Enneagram, and beginning one's journey.
Enneagram is not intended to be another personality test, it is a tool for self discovery. My embrace of it is tied to its focus on the Deadly Sins or Passions, about which I have preached a great deal for over two years. Finally, I found something which can help us deal with our real life and personal journey into God. This school provides three generic ways of being a human in the world, and three more specific variations of each general type. The authors I have read all make clear that the types are not set in stone. They further emphasize that we are unique humans who embody the type in our own complex ways. It is meant as a mirror to provide insights into our own unconscious motivations and the strengths and weaknesses of our way of being. However, already the feedback is coming in; this helps me understand why I do what I do, which helps to choose better.
We need to see both the forest and the trees, we need to see Genus and Species. Grouping humans allows us to recognize similar patterns across larger sub-populations. It is the age old issue of "the one and the many," what makes us the same and what makes us different. Terms like Christian, athlete, or teacher do in fact have meaning and are actual subdivisions of human life. Such categories are helpful and give insights into others. However, one also learns such divisions do not do justice to the complete person, there is always more to the story. The Nine Ways points to something real, even if it is not able to explain us 100%.
Genesis 1 describes creation from a global, ordered (very priestly) view point. God says, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." This is the starting point for Judaeo-Christian anthropology. The Bible does not give an exact, detailed account of human construction. We know humans have bodies--the physical man. Humans also have an inner dimension, which is variously called spirit, soul, mind, heart, or identified with the working of desires, hungers, needs, wants, etc. Some Biblical authors differentiate, for example, the mind from spirit. Others use the terms interchangeably and a survey of a biblical dictionary does little to clarify because the same word can have myriad meanings. The "image of God" is never fully explained, although it appears again in Colossians 1:15 ("He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth...all things were created through Him and for Him.") where it is applied to Jesus with a huge twist, the image is actually divine. Genesis says God gave Man a role which is 'godlike' translated as dominion, rule, mastery, authority, etc. God also gives Man plants for food.
Genesis 2's more anthropomorphic rendition (where man is created before vegetation) is more intimate. The soil and divine breath composition is called a nephesh--a living soul (but nephesh has other nuances of meaning including passions, desires, mental and emotional function, and various spiritual and human angles. This raises the question: what is human? Once again, we note God's provision, and that the man is charged to guard and keep the garden. We also learn that it is not good for man to be alone.
What comes clear here, and what follows in the rest of the Bible, are basic patterns. Relational Man--not alone but partnered with someone of "like strength." The Scriptures regularly focus on God's love and human love (for God and others). Scripture celebrates unique persons, service and success. Human capacity and power are also present in dominion and watching. Safety needs--will God save us--are central to the texts. How often do the psalmists say "God is my stronghold, my surety. my safety"? There is a command to love your neighbor as yourself, there are many commandments about justice and right dealings with one another. The constant demand that we love and serve God, and no other, and the Lord's wrath against those who harm others or embrace other gods might be the most important topic of the Jewish Bible. Lastly, the recurring theme of idolatry. A close analysis of these and other Biblical themes reflects the threefold understanding of humans as mind-heart-instinct. The human needs which we all share, are also more intensely experienced in different ways. Which is decisive--the need of knowledge or safety, the need of relationship and loneliness, or the need of power and confrontation? In the end, one of the three is the final court of decisions and that court is our type. We all know that there are patterns, people whose first impulse is to withdraw from others, move toward them or confront them. Certainly we do not always do the same thing each time, but the underlying motivation remains the same. Other consideration impact the how, but the why remains the same.
Conclusion
I think our True Self is the image of God. Each of us was born with a basic task of being some aspect of the Jesus Image by whom we were created. God gifted us with a particular "spirit" and we choose spiritually to be one with God or not. Our souls and bodies comprise us in real time. Some things are not in our control, others are. The world impacts us, for better or worse, particularly our parents (or care givers) and families. Our experiences are always based on an interpretation of the events of our life, and our way of being is in constant flux as we, in our particular expression of one of the Nine types, negotiate our personal journey of life. The grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit is enhanced or impeded by our willingness or reluctance to become what Abba Father intends us to be. Unbelief can be a sufficient barrier to healing love. Sins, known and unknown, complicate, slow down and otherwise conflict with healing salvation.
Everyone knows bad thinking and wrong desires are deadly, the issue is how to understand the particular way each of us moves to chaos and pain. Our apparent virtues are often nothing of the sort. Jesus says it is what is within a person that makes him/her unclean. Sadly, the most deadly thing at work in us is often hidden. The unseen passions which generate the sin. Understanding the why of the behavior does not excuse it. Each person can choose to journey into God, and obediently take up their own God given identity. That is a major component of the Journey of Faith.
I am no teacher of he Enneagram. I do find it fits into those things about which I do teach. I hope you find it helpful as well.
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