The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery

by Ian Morgan Cron, Suzanne Stabile

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

If you don’t know yourself, you can’t better yourself, right? Well this book takes this approach, and makes it actionable. Using Christian tenets and personality typing, Road Back To You is designed to help you be the instrument of your own change.

Join over 1 million other readers worldwide on a journey of spiritual growth and self-awareness.

What you don't know about yourself can hurt you and your relationships—and even keep you in the shallows with God. Do you want help figuring out who you are and why you're stuck in the same ruts?

The Enneagram is an ancient personality typing system with an uncanny accuracy in describing how human beings are wired, both positively and negatively. In The Road Back to You Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile forge a unique approach—a practical, comprehensive way of accessing Enneagram wisdom and exploring its connections with Christian spirituality for a deeper knowledge of ourselves, compassion for others, and love for God.

Witty and filled with stories, this book allows you to peek inside each of the nine Enneagram types, keeping you turning the pages long after you have read the chapter about your own number. Not only will you learn more about yourself, but you will also start to see the world through other people's eyes, understanding how and why people think, feel, and act the way they do.

To guide your first steps into your self-awareness journey, The Road Back to You offers:

• Introductions to each Enneagram type
• Questions to help you identify your number
• Changes you can make today to pursue deeper self-awareness
• Digestible windows into the other types, helping you see others with more compassion and empathy

The wisdom of the Enneagram can help take you further along into who you really are—leading you into places of spiritual discovery you would never have found on your own, and paving the way to the wiser, more compassionate person you want to become.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780830893270
Publisher:	IVP Formatio
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	150,189
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ian Morgan Cron is a bestselling author, nationally recognized speaker, Enneagram teacher, counselor, Dove Award–winning songwriter, and Episcopal priest. His books include the novel Chasing Francis and spiritual memoir Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me. His most recent book is The Story of You: An Enneagram Journey to Becoming Your True Self. He and his wife, Anne, live in Nashville, Tennessee.

Suzanne Stabile is a highly sought-after speaker, teacher, and internationally recognized Enneagram master teacher, having conducted over five hundred workshops. She is the author of The Path Between Us and she is creator and host of The Enneagram Journey podcast. Along with her husband, Rev. Joseph Stabile, she is cofounder of Life in the Trinity Ministry. Their ministry home, the Micah Center, is located in Dallas, Texas.

Ian Morgan Cron is a bestselling author, nationally recognized speaker, Enneagram teacher, counselor, Dove Award–winning songwriter, and Episcopal priest. His books include the novel Chasing Francis and spiritual memoir Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me. His most recent book is The Story of You: An Enneagram Journey to Becoming Your True Self. He and his wife, Anne, live in Nashville, Tennessee.

Suzanne Stabile is an internationally recognized Enneagram master teacher. She is the author of The Path Between Us and coauthor, with Ian Morgan Cron, of the bestseller The Road Back to You. She is the host of The Enneagram Journey podcast. Along with her husband, Rev. Joseph Stabile, she is cofounder of Life in the Trinity Ministry located in Dallas, Texas.

Table of Contents

1. A Curious Theory of Unknown Origin
2. Finding Your Type
3. Type Eight: The Challenger
"Lead me, follow me, or get out of the way." —General George S. Patton Jr.
4. Type Nine: The Peacemaker
"You cannot find peace by avoiding life." —Virginia Woolf
5. Type One: The Perfectionist
"Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people." —Anne Lamott
6. Type Two: The Helper
"I want you to be happy, but I want to be the reason." —Anonymous
7. Type Three: The Performer
"The real question is, can you love the real me? . . . Not the perfect person you want me to be, not that image you had of me, but who I really am." —Christine Feehan
8. Type Four: The Romantic
"If you've ever had that feeling of loneliness, of being an outsider, it never quite leaves you." —Tim Burton
9. Type Five: The Investigator
"I think I am, therefore, I am. I think.." —George Carlin
10. Type Six: The Loyalist
"There's no harm in hoping for the best as long as you're prepared for the worst."
—Stephen King
11. Type Seven: The Enthusiast
"Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings!" —Peter Pan
12. So Now What? The Beginning of Love
"The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves." —Thomas Merton
Acknowledgments
Notes

What People are Saying About This

Nadia Bolz-Weber

"With The Road Back to You, the small number of books I recommend to absolutely everyone has increased by one. You couldn't ask for a better introduction to the Enneagram than what's found in this book and you couldn't ask for better guides than Cron and Stabile. If a modicum of self-awareness is needed to navigate life these days, let this book be your map."

Jena Lee Nardella

"As a newbie to the Enneagram, The Road Back to You offered a delightful and accessible way to honestly examine my own motivations and consider the best path toward growth and flourishing. This book is a must-read for those who seek to not only understand themselves better, but those closest to them, as well."

Shauna Niequist

"I'm so thrilled that this book exists. The Enneagram has absolutely changed my understanding of how to love the people in my life, deepened the quality of my marriage, and given me a vision for the person God designed me to be. This book makes the Enneagram easy to understand, with helpful stories, humor, warmth, and clear language. I'll need a case, at least."

Mark Batterson

"Ian Morgan Cron, partnering with Suzanne Stabile, has gifted us with another timely and brilliantly written book. We've long needed a fresh, spiritually grounded approach to helping people grow in self-knowledge and compassion. This is a winsome and thoughtful primer!"

Anita Lustrea

"The Enneagram has been a powerful tool for spiritual transformation in my life, so much so that I became a certified trainer. I've read many of the books available on the subject. This is a wonderfully thorough examination of the Enneagram and the best news is that it will speak to both newcomers and Enneagram veterans."

Michael Gungor

"The Enneagram has been a vital tool in my own personal journey of self-discovery, and The Road Back to You does a great job of making this ancient tool accessible for the modern Christian."

Michael Hyatt

"What would you give to crack the biggest mystery in the world: Yourself? Why do we act, think, feel, and believe the way we do? I know of no better tool than the Enneagram. And I know of no better teachers of this tool than my friends Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile. I use the Enneagram in my business and personal life every day. The Road Back to You will open your eyes to the depths of your heart."

Claire Diaz-Ortiz

"There is a special place in my heart for books that help me be a better me. In this book, Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile have delivered on their promise to provide a roadmap to self. The Road Back to You will help you find you—all over again and for the first time."

Makoto Fujimura

"A must-read for all and a companion guide for a lifelong journey to live generatively. A book full of wisdom, discernment, and humor, The Road Back to You creates a path toward home ever so gently and joyfully."

Wm. Paul Young

"Armed with delightful but incisive wit, Cron and Stabile help us explore our inner life by making the mystery of the Enneagram accessible. If you want to better understand yourself and those in the world around you, this insightful and brilliant book is a perfect place to begin."

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/08/2016
Cron (Chasing Francis), an Episcopal priest, brings his witty, energetic voice to this collaboration with Stabile, a retreat director and expert on the Enneagram—a system of personality typology with roots in Christian and Islamic mysticism. The beauty of the Enneagram is its charity: the system clearly names the flaws as well as the virtues of each personality type. The Enneagram also counsels humility and acknowledges its own limits (“ is not infallible or inerrant,” writes Cron and Stabile)—a welcome modesty in religious understanding today. As one of a number of ways of thinking about personality, it is a helpful spiritual analogue to Myers-Briggs typology. The authors counsel the use of the system, which includes nine distinct personality types, for self-knowledge: “The objective of it is self-understanding.” It is also a useful tool for ministers and managers and anyone who has to work with diverse personalities, which will make the book appropriate for seminary study. There isn’t much literature on the Enneagram, with little for curious evangelical Christians. Cron and Stabile’s approach is likely to appeal particularly to thoughtful younger Christians. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"What would you give to crack the biggest mystery in the world: Yourself? Why do we act, think, feel, and believe the way we do? I know of no better tool than the Enneagram. And I know of no better teachers of this tool than my friends Ian Cron and Suzanne Stabile. I use the Enneagram in my business and personal life every day. The Road Back to You will open your eyes to the depths of your heart."

Michael Hyatt

"With The Road Back to You, the small number of books I recommend to absolutely everyone has increased by one. You couldn't ask for a better introduction to the Enneagram than what's found in this book and you couldn't ask for better guides than Cron and Stabile. If a modicum of self-awareness is needed to navigate life these days, let this book be your map."

Nadia Bolz-Weber

"A true understanding of your Enneagram type will tell you more about your financial strengths and foibles than you can imagine. . . . I find The Road Back to You to be the most readable and applicable book I've read yet on the subject."

Tim Maurer

"An aid to those seeking to identify personality types, with a little bit of spirituality on the side."

Sandra Colllins

"There is a special place in my heart for books that help me be a better me. In this book, Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile have delivered on their promise to provide a roadmap to self. The Road Back to You will help you find you—all over again and for the first time."

Claire Diaz-Ortiz

"The Road Back to You is a great read for anyone who wants to grow in their knowledge of themselves and how it affects all your relationships. I would also highly recommend it for anyone who works with other people. It has the potential to give you a whole new understanding of the people you interact with on a daily basis."

Nathan McCorkindale

"The Enneagram has been a vital tool in my own personal journey of self-discovery, and The Road Back to You does a great job of making this ancient tool accessible for the modern Christian."

Michael Gungor

"Cron and Stabile walk through the Enneagram's nine different personality types and their distinct ways of seeing the world, showing how each one has a potentially infinite number of expressions, strengths, and weaknesses. Cron describes his own Enneagram experience as a feeling of waking up after having been asleep for a long time. He explains that in catching a glimpse of the person he was created to be, he began to see himself with the same delight, pride, and expectation with which God sees him, and to sense the immediacy of God's grace. 'In the spiritual life that's no small thing,' he writes."

Foreword Reviews

"I'm so thrilled that this book exists. The Enneagram has absolutely changed my understanding of how to love the people in my life, deepened the quality of my marriage, and given me a vision for the person God designed me to be. This book makes the Enneagram easy to understand, with helpful stories, humor, warmth, and clear language. I'll need a case, at least."

Shauna Niequist

"Armed with delightful but incisive wit, Cron and Stabile help us explore our inner life by making the mystery of the Enneagram accessible. If you want to better understand yourself and those in the world around you, this insightful and brilliant book is a perfect place to begin."

Wm. Paul Young

"Ian Morgan Cron, partnering with Suzanne Stabile, has gifted us with another timely and brilliantly written book. We've long needed a fresh, spiritually grounded approach to helping people grow in self-knowledge and compassion. This is a winsome and thoughtful primer!"

Mark Batterson

"A must-read for all and a companion guide for a lifelong journey to live generatively. A book full of wisdom, discernment, and humor, The Road Back to You creates a path toward home ever so gently and joyfully."

Makoto Fujimura

"As a newbie to the Enneagram, The Road Back to You offered a delightful and accessible way to honestly examine my own motivations and consider the best path toward growth and flourishing. This book is a must-read for those who seek to not only understand themselves better, but those closest to them, as well."

Jena Lee Nardella

"The Enneagram has been a powerful tool for spiritual transformation in my life, so much so that I became a certified trainer. I've read many of the books available on the subject. This is a wonderfully thorough examination of the Enneagram and the best news is that it will speak to both newcomers and Enneagram veterans."

Anita Lustrea

"Cron and Stabile walk through the Enneagram's nine different personality types and their distinct ways of seeing the world, showing how each one has a potentially infinite number of expressions, strengths, and weaknesses. Cron describes his own Enneagram experience as a feeling of waking up after having been asleep for a long time. He explains that in catching a glimpse of the person he was created to be, he began to see himself with the same delight, pride, and expectation with which God sees him, and to sense the immediacy of God's grace. 'In the spiritual life that's no small thing,' he writes."

Fall 2016 Foreword Reviews

10/01/2016
Cron (Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale) and Stabile (cofounder, Life in the Trinity Ministry) find robust pastoral merit within the Enneagram, a personality modeling system with nine interconnected personality types. According to the authors, the Enneagram is the key to self-discovery, particularly for relationships: "The Enneagram shows us that we can't change the way other people see, but we can try to experience the world through their eyes and help them change what they do with what they see." Chapters go on to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each personality type, including the "wings," or characteristics of related personality types that may further impact the way one understands the world. These are then understood in terms of relationships and the path of spiritual transformation or healing. The goal of this self-help guide, conclude Cron and Stabile, is to encourage self-forgiveness and open ourselves to all of the characteristics within our God-given selves. VERDICT An aid to those seeking to identify personality types, with a little bit of spirituality on the side.—SC

Library Journal