The Dangers of Enneagram Practice: An Audio Essay

This "audio essay" is the transcription of one of my quarterly emails. It is a thought experiment, based on Lauren Winner's recent book, The Dangers of Christian Practice, which explores the damages intrinsic to Christian sacred practices. Believing her to have made a compelling case, and believing cautionary tales of techno-critics everywhere, I explore the possible damages sustained at the very site of our attempts to do good work with the enneagram as tool. This isn't an essay to tell you how to do things perfectly, simply an invitation to eyes-wide-openness and honest companionship as we do work which tends towards very particular kinds of damage. For access to the text-based option, just go ahead and sign up to the EFW quarterly email list!

The 27 Subtypes: A 3-Part Podcast with the Liturgists

Mike McHargue and I had a marathon of a conversation to bring you this 3 part series introducing you to the 27 subtypes, split up between heart, head and gut centers. In Enneagram theory, the Instincts--Self Preservation, Sexual, and Social Structural-- combine with each of the 9 Enneatypes to create 27 subtypes. This podcast takes a descriptive walk through each of the subtypes, highlighting the differences between different instinctual variations of each type. The conversations about each type are bookended with narratives by people of each type as well as by the nine Enneagram Songs by Ryan O'Neal of Sleeping at Last.

If it were me, I'd take it in segments--it's a lot to do all at once! But, if it were me, I'd also not run a marathon. To each their own. But, in case you were wondering, if you were actually to run a marathon listening to it, you'd have to pace your mile at 8:30. Good luck to you in your listening / marathoning endeavors.

Enneagram Games and Memes: A Cost/Benefit Analysis

Originally, this video went out to my email list, but the more questions I get about how to use the Enneagram, the more this video seems helpful. I think you can apply the logic that this video lays out to work on accepting and appreciating the way people engage with the Enneagram, as well as appreciating the kinds of environments such engagements enable and allow (as well as the invitational scope of those environments). I hope it is generous. But I also hope it makes clear what games and memes cannot do. We might have that general sense, but then we are left with the question: What do we do with the Enneagram?