Eco-Spirituality?Richard Rohr OFM

  • Thread starter Thread starter MeganJB
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

MeganJB

Guest
Hi Everyone,

I’m new . I was driven here by some comments our DRE made at a mtg. last night. My Scripture study group wants to do a Jeff Cavins series next fall. She ok’ed it, but went off on a tirade about Cavins, Hahn, Madrid etc. for being part of “The New Apologetics” ( tsk, tsk) and what she really wanted to see was more of a focus on “Eco-spirituality”( aaarrrghhh) and she mentioned the name Richard Rohr OFM.
I’m sticking with The New Apologists because they happened to be the cause of my conversion, but I googled this Rohr individual and he’s looking extremely dubious to me…Anyone,… anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

On a related note, what is the Enneagram? Has anyone out there heard of this? Or Rohr? I knew our DRE was inclined in a leftwards direction, but this sounds very new-agey to me. 65% of our parishioners don’t seem to be aware of the Sunday Mass requirement, so I don’t think Tree-hugging 101 is where we need to direct our time, talent and treasure. Call me a kook, but I can’t wait for our new Archbishop to start cleaning out the barn. Your take?

Desperately yours,
MJB
 
MeganJB said:
I’m sticking with The New Apologists because they happened to be the cause of my conversion, but I googled this Rohr individual and he’s looking extremely dubious to me…Anyone,… anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Click to expand...
Maybe someone else can answer this. I’ve heard very little about Rohr.
On a related note, what is the Enneagram?
Click to expand...
An enneagram is a nine-pointed geometric figure. The Enneagram is a personality analysis and new-age spirituality based on the enneagram. Though it likely can be safely used as simply a personality test, the ways in which it encourages a transcendence, through the self-actualization of personality, into “higher states of being” is most definitely new-age, and best to avoid.

The phrase “eco-spirituality” reminds me of a nun/laity movement I got caught up in during RCIA. Very bad, talking all about Mother Earth, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, etc… But that does not mean necessarily all eco-spirituality is bad. I would be very cautious, however.

And would stay away from the Enneagrams.
 
To the OP:

If I were you, I would flee that study group…post haste.
 
If you’re going to do “eco-spirituality”, the Church has generated a considerable amount to look at. In the Northwest, the bishops along the Columbia River produced the Columbia River Pastoral Letter, in which they outlined a Catholic perspective on how to balance the economic and environmental concerns that have to be balanced within faithful stewardship of that watershed.

If your DRE wants to look at ecology, steer her towards something like that. These are important issues before the laity, issues about which no decision is itself a decision. If the Church doesn’t teach about it, some feel-good well-meaning lover of all things green is going to be supplying their version in Her place.

As far as the Enneagram goes, I’ve read Fr. Rohr’s book on the subject. I have no idea if the ideas the author thinks are ancient really are, but for me that is neither here nor there. The biggest issue, admitted by the author, is that there is a huge temptation, after reading something like this, to think, “Aha! She acts like this, she’s just a typical Two, that’s all.” People aren’t so easy to pigeon hole.

It isn’t astrology, though, and it isn’t pagan. It is more an attempt to tie our biggest spiritual opportunities and temptations to the sin that most plagues us. To the seven cardinal sins, he adds deception (the fear of looking bad or the need to look good) and fear (the need for security or certainty). I don’t think the book is about spirituality so much as a sort of psychological system. It is like this: one of my kids has a temper. I’ve told him that it isn’t something bad he needs to get rid of, but a part of him that he needs to have control of, in order for God to use it. St. Paul had a temper, after all.

Considering how a particular fear common within humanity might generate a certain set of virtues and vices and how those tend to relate to each other was a helpful exercise for me. So I guess I’d say the book is well worth reading, if you think you can resist making a gospel out of it. As for Fr. Rohr, I think he’s on to other topics.

If it drives you nuts to read something that has insights and difficulties in it side by side, though, or if you feel some need to either hold fast to everything or nothing an author has to write, stay away from Fr. Richard Rohr. He will drive you bananas. I think even he would say as much.
 
Lazerlike42 said:
Fr. Mitch Pacwa has done relatively extensive work on the ennegram:

cfpeople.org/Apologetics/page51a076.html

iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0146a.html
Click to expand...
Yes. Thanks for the links. I very much liked Richard Rohr’s early tapes and books. Job and the Mystery of Suffering; and Great Themes of Scripture were done in the mid- 90’s I think. His latest items seem far fetched and New-Agey to me. I don’t like his involvement with the Enneagram. I am afraid he has gotten carried away with the '60’s hippie -priest thing. He may also have mis-interpreted John Duns Scotus, an early Franciscan whom he admires on the Church’s teaching on the Atonement. He is a gifted speaker and in demand for Retreats-- but be careful with his newer writings.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top