Just in time for Halloween, “Christian” publisher Intervarsity Press (IVP) has premiered its new website: EnneagramToday.com. Have the leaders at Intervarsity lost their minds, or are they just hitting the New Age cash register for their piece of the Enneagram pie after missing the “Christian” Yoga boom.
I learned much about what I know about the New Age from a Christian perspective from Professor Douglas Groothius’s books “Unmasking the New Age” (1986) and “Confronting the New Age” (1988), both from Intervarsity Press. Unfortunately, when it comes to publishing questionable “Christian” books about a New Age tool of very questionable origins, it appears that they did not consult their most eminent scholar and expert on the matter.
On IVP’s new website, the article “What is the Enneagram and where did it come from?” describes exactly what occult Gnosticism is about, but fails to apprehend it. Alice Fryling even calls it “secret knowledge” passed down by word of mouth which is by definition esoteric Gnosticism:
“In modern times this oral tradition has been passed down largely through the Catholic Church, but until the second half of the twentieth century, the Enneagram was considered “secret knowledge.” Laypeople, it was thought, could not handle this information with care and wisdom.”
https://enneagramtoday.com/what-is-the-enneagram-and-where-did-it-come-from/
Just a few things to know about the Enneagram:
- The Enneagram has no Christian origins – There is no evidence that any of the early Church fathers used a nine-sided symbol for divining spiritual truths.
- The Enneagram is a New Age gnostic tool developed by Georges Gurdjieff that did not include personality types.
- Claudio Naranjo, a New Age psychiatrist, developed the Enneagram Personality types from personal revelation through “automatic handwriting.” Automatic handwriting is a form of occult spirit-channeling similar to using an Ouiji board.
- Claudio Naranjo, in a video in 2010, said that he “made up this tale” about the ancient origins of his personality types to help promote the Enneagram. (See Youtube Video Interview)
- The Enneagram has no basis or any significant support in psychometric research.
(From ChristianAnswersfortheNewAge.org article: “Facts and Fictions of the Enneagram.”)
See Marcia Montenegro’s video “The Origins of the Enneagram” :
3 thoughts on “The Enneagram: The Personality Typing Ouija Board for Christians from Intervarsity Press”
Thank you for orthodox Christian guidance on this foolishness. IVP is feeling the heat on this nonsense, rightfully so. My fellow congregants at Saint Alban’s Anglican in western PA are thankful to the Lord for our obedient Bishop, Diocese, rector, and lay adult education and discipleship leaders that would never allow this gnostic stink within smelling distance of our church doors.
Thanks for helping to sound the alarm.
Thank you for taking a stand, and thanks much for posting this and quoting my article and video. I am still seeing this spread because too many even reject the facts when they have them. They’d prefer to believe a deception.