christiannonduality.com Blog

Adam McHugh’s “Introverts In The Church: Finding Our Place In An Extroverted Culture” has just been released. A few months ago, Jamie Arpin-Ricci interviewed Adam McHugh (<<< click on link to read this interview).

This brings to mind a post I wrote seven years ago along the same lines. Enjoy!

Jesus was a Capricorn, but was He an ESFJ? an Enneagram 2?

There are some religious sects that have been turning out ESFJ’s based on research conducted utilizing MBTI personality testing. Critics of such groups and movements charge that leaders of these sects are 1) making members over after their own image, 2) controlling them in such a way that their personalities are changed to conform to the group norm and 3) argue that such personality changes are destructive psychologically and spiritually. Leaders of these groups claim that such research simply proves that Jesus was an ESFJ !

These are the ideas explored in __The Discipling Dilemma__ the Second Edition by Flavil R. Yeakley, Jr., Editor, Howard W. Norton, Don E. Vinzant and Gene Vinzant, which can be read online at the above link.

They write:

quote:

---

“In some religious sects, it is a fact that the observed changes presented a clear pattern of convergence in a single type: ESFJ. There was a strong tendency for introverts to become extraverts, for intuitors to become sensors, for thinkers to become feelers, and for perceivers to become judgers. The observed results indicate a dangerous falsification of type produced by some kind of group pressure.”

---

What do you think?

The discussion continues with a poem, here>>>

For My Little Jung Catholics
(or how to lick your sacred wounds)

It was your extroversion
T’was the reason
I’ve been told
That set you on the path, my friend
To become a Maryknoll
And your introversion gifted you
As anyone could predict
With your inclination following
The Rule of Benedict
You set out as a Thomist
And time and time again
In the manner of your thinking
You were Dominican
Always guided by some values
A sense of social justice feeling
Is the likely explanation
Your were Jesuit in your dealing
Sacred coming through your senses
A recreation every dawn
Like the little friars minor
Your favorite feast
Was Christmas morn
Where you approached
The Incarnation
With a Zen-like intuition
In your cloistered monastery
Fully Trappist in tradition
How keenly in the Dark Night
His Presence there perceiving
Fired by urgent longings
On Carmel’s heights
Love’s wound receiving
Though you would not rush to closure
Your judgment never was retired
For where nothing’s been forbidden
Truly nothing’s been required
In a life that’s truly centered
On this one can depend
You can proceed in perfect joy
No boundaries to defend

johnboy
For the occasion of 16 July 2002
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel