…and other popular ideas such as the “shadow self”
Current popular teachings, mainly due to the recent influence of the Enneagram which include Jungian ideas of the dark side and the shadow self, are making headway in the church.
The Enneagram was planted like a seed in the church. The seed has sprouted and what is emerging are concepts of self such as the true self, false self, shadow self, shadow side, and the supposed therapies such shadow work, along with related views. The ideas of true self and the others listed are not new with the Enneagram; the Enneagram was merely the vehicle that brought them in. The origins are the New Age, Carl Jung, the human potential movement, Perennial Wisdom (Richard Rohr, whose followers brought the first two Enneagram books into the church, is an adherent of Perennial Wisdom), and ancient pagan beliefs. In my years as an astrologer, I became quite familiar with Jungian ideas of the shadow self since Jung’s teachings influenced contempoary astrology.
The truth is there is only the real self: either the unredeemed self (old self) or the redeemed self (new self).
The Unredeemed Self
Made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27, 5:1-2, 9:6)
Fallen through sin (Rom. 3:23, Eph. 2:2-3, 5:6; Col. 3:6)
Under God’s wrath
In need of forgiveness for sins (Luke 1:77, 24:47; Acts 10:43, 26:18; Col. 1:14)
In need of redemption (Rom. 3:24; Col. 1:14)
Under God’s judgment
The Redeemed Self
Made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27, 5:1-2, 9:6)
Forgiven of sins and redeemed
New Self
Adopted in the household of God
Being conformed to the image of Christ
Not under judgment but passed from death into life
The shadow self, shadow side, and the “dark side,” come from Carl Jung and occult and New age ideas about the self. These concepts are poisoned with beliefs of no absolutes, polarity (an occult concept with balanced energy as the goal), denial of sin, a “divine” self, an original “true” self never separated from God (Perennial Wisdom), and the ‘authentic self.”
Aside from the Enneagram, books such as The Gift of Being Yourself, by David G. Benner , popular with Christian counselors and read on Christian campuses, plant the seed of a false self. Benner, a “Master Teacher” at Rohr’s Living School, is a follower of Perennial Wisdom, promoter of the Enneagram, and a depth psychologist (Jungian therapist).
Preoccupation with the self is unproductive and even destructive. The natural self is death, the new self has eternal life.
“and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.” Colossians 3:10
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