Ian Morgan Cron

My wife came home from church one day and said, “I want to take that Sunday School class on the Enneagram.” I’d heard of it, but I knew nothing about it. Over the next few weeks, she kept calling people numbers. “You’re a five.” or “I’m a six.” Intrigued, I decided to read this book to learn more about it.

I was – and still am – very cynical that human personality can be broken down accurately into nine parts. Even though the enneagram has ancient roots in Christian show more spirituality, the system seems somewhat contrived and arbitrary. Why must things combine in a set way? Why can’t they be some other way?

At its best, this book offers a language to communicate about concepts that make people’s personalities tick. At its best, the enneagram provides a lens through which to understand the people in our lives with compassion. At its worst, it’s just another reductionistic self-help program.

These concepts are all-the-rage in mainline Christian churches today. Some people treat all of this as incontrovertible gospel. In some ways, it’s the new Myers-Briggs psychology test, which was the new Jungian archetypes. It’s helpful to be exposed to, at the very least in order to learn the language. But there is more to life than personality as there is more to psychology than the almighty self. This book needs to teach us about others, not self-absorption, about love-of-neighbor instead of mere narcissism.

Therefore, I think this book is misnomered. The goal is not self-discovery. The goal is discovery of how to understand those closest to us. I know I thought of co-workers and family members as I read. I thought of how I could have handled situations and people better than I did. Yes, it taught me about myself, but that wasn’t the point. It taught me about them and how I can relate to their lives better. It didn’t teach me how I can be me better. It taught me how handle me so that I can love them better. show less

This was not what I was expecting, and I was pleasantly surprised. This book was suggested by Crystal at Money Saving Moms, and I figured that this was going to be an overly religious read. A pastor loses his faith and travels to Italy to visit his uncle in an attempt to rediscover it.

What he finds instead is St. Francis - a man who revolted against the norm and changed the world. This was not a religious study, but rather an invitation to look inside yourself and be willing to stand up for show more what you believe in and be willing to make that change in the world.

I found this book inspirational, without being overly religiously inspirational. Cron found that balance between telling a story with meaning, and meaning for his story to tell the reader something. Already I am building a list of people to share this book with.

Again, this is not my typical type of story, but I have been finding so many books recently that are not "my type" that speak to me, so maybe I should re-evaluate what "my type" really is. show less

If you’re interested in the Enneagram but it seems really overwhelming, what with the triads and the wings and all the different numbers, this is a great place to start. Ian Cron has a gentle and light-hearted voice as he goes thru each number in his own order, and then he sprinkles in more details as they’re needed, so they don’t feel terribly overwhelming. The triads and stress/security levels aren’t explained in a lot of depth, but it’s enough for a beginner, and there are lots show more of other books that will go deeper. The book is written from a Christian perspective and does talk a fair amount about God, but I felt it was much more in the context of “finding out who God made you to be,” God is peripheral rather than central.

Each number begins with a list of characteristics portrayed by the number, and then a story of an individual who portrays those characteristics. Cron describes the good, the bad, and the ugly about each number, how they likely were as children, what they would be like in a work environment, and in relationship. While Cron does cover the negative side of each number, he does so in an truthful and encouraging way, and each chapter ends with a list of actions to take in order to move toward health and integration.

There’s no test included to determine your number, but the lists in front of each chapter should serve as a fairly good indicator of which one fits you, and online tests abound, if you want to take one. The book is a good general overview of the Enneagram, it’s very accessible and quite enjoyable to read.

As an aside, the authors, Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile, actually put together a podcast as a lead up to the release of their book a couple years back. They would talk Enneagram stuff with lots of people at varying levels of study in Enneagram, and they covered all the different numbers. Many of the guests were well known to me from Christian media circles, and others were brand new, but the conversations reveal things about the numbers in a personal way that just reading a book cannot. Plus, Ian and Suzanne are just fun to listen to, and very engaging. The podcast is also called The Road Back to You, and if you want to learn even more about all things Enneagram, this is a good place to do it, tho it would be helpful to have at least a little knowledge of what they’re talking about when you start. show less

This is an incredible book. In fact, it's so good that for the first time ever, i bought both the kindle and the audible versions AFTER listening the it on CDs from the library. It's fiction, but it feels so real that you want it to BE real. A megachurch pastor has a meltdown and begins to question his faith and everything he has based his ministry on for the past 15 years. He calls his uncle, who he's always had a deep connection with, and who is a Franciscan friar living in Italy. His show more uncle invites him to come visit and he spends a few months with the Franciscan learning about St. Francis and visiting the key places in St. Francis' life while reading about him and interacting with his uncle and other Franciscans. His faith is not only rekindled, but revitalized and his whole perspective on ministry is changed. This is a great book for anyone in ministry, but also for anyone who struggles with faith and purpose, and isn't that all of us? Get the book, the audiobook or the ebook, or like me, get them all. There is also a study guide for leading a small group. show less