I’ve read several books on the Enneagram and I found this one to be the most helpful and the most informative in terms of how the Enneagram can be used from a Christian perspective. My favorite thing about the Enneagram is that it helps you understand who God designed you to be, how your choices have distorted your gifting and how God provides grace for you to find your way back. It doesn’t just define you and leave you there. It gives you a path to transformation so that you can move from your false self to the true self God intended. That said, this book does a great job of simplifying the different pieces of the Enneagram so that anyone can read and apply it to their own lives. It’s my go-to book as a spiritual director when I need a resource. Each chapter includes a personal meditation to help you go deeper with the material from that chapter and there’s a chapter in the back entitled, “Using the Enneagram in Spiritual Direction,” for spiritual directors and/or pastors who counsel their congregants. ~ Barb Toft
When the Soul Listens: Finding Rest and Direction in Contemplative Prayer
Writing about this book by Jan Johnson, author Brennan Manning called it “a well-written and finely constructed introduction to the prayer of simple regard.” Author James Bryan Smith wrote, “The best recommendation anyone can give to any how-to book is this: It makes you long to do it yourself. That was certainly the case for me when I finished When the Soul Listens. It made me yearn for a deeper, wider and more consistent practice of contemplative prayer in my own life.” I (Mark Warner) couldn’t agree more. I listened to this wonderfully practical book while traveling on sabbatical and was moved by how accessible it is. The practice of Contemplative or Abiding Prayer is a central practice of Christian Spiritual Formation and Jan Johnson does a wonderful job of inviting the reader into a different kind of life with God.
