Posted by Dafyd on April 29, 1999 at 20:13:51:
In Reply to: Meeting GOD via the enneagram posted by Dave on April 28, 1999 at 23:06:58:
> After a discusiion with a professor of Religion I came to an idea about how the enneagram describes the 3 main ways that religion and phiosophy approach God.
> Thinking Center people (5/6/7) attempt to find or discover the God of the Philosophers. The objective Creative force (7), the Laws of Nature (6), and/or the mathematics of creation and emanation (5).
> Feeling Center people (2/3/4) attempt to meet God as in relationship. Through service in the world(2), in their works (3), or through the sacred in the inner wellsprings of one's self (4).
> Instinctive center people (8/9/1) attempt to influence God. Through force of will (8), union (9), or perfect execution of prescribed duties (1).
In Enneagram II, Rohr gives a list of false, or perhaps partial images of God that each type is liable to have.
One: Nobodaddy - the Old Man in the Sky who forbids things.
Two: The Sacred Heart - God who cares for people (but not enough as the Two has to help.)
Three: The Continuous Creator. As with Two, God doesn't work hard enough and the Three has to help.
Four: The Infinite Void. God is felt as an absence, or as a disturbing presence who cannot be grasped.
Five: The god of the Philosophers - the Unmoved Mover.
Six: The Saviour God. Jesus died to save you. Who from? Well, let's not ask too closely about God the Father...
Seven: God is Energy.
Eight: The Lord of Battles.
Nine: God present in everything.
That's what Rohr says anyway. It sounds just a little too schematic to be true.
My personal experience: I am moved mostly by images of God who acts or intervenes, or who is with people in their
suffering. However, I am moved by intellectual images of these things - by reading about them in theology or
poetry (and it had better be intellectually rigourous theology without sentimentality). So in a sense one could
say I try to find an intellectual God. But a purely mathematical idea with no involvement with the world has
no interest for me.
Dafyd (a Five)