Sacred Pathways (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 2000; vuoden 2017 painos)

Truth be told, I skimmed it. This is not a book to savor; it's to be scarfed. A summary is great - in fact, it's probably better than the actual content. His argument is this: there are many paths that lead to God, not merely going to church and reading your Bible. Here are 9 of them, with a personalized self-assessment for each.

Highly recommended for conservative evangelicals! ( )

A very helpful book, focussing on nine different pathways that people meet with God. The author explains early on that these are not the same as personality preferences - such as the Myers-Briggs or Enneagram systems - although there are some obvious correlations.

There's a chapter on each of the pathways. Each one has an explanation with some examples from Scripture and from other lives; some suggestions; some warnings against extremes, and a useful short questionnaire enabling the reader to build up a general profile.

As I read the first few, my scores on the questionnaires were all around 12-15, and I wondered if anything would apply to me. Then at last I read the last two - the contemplative and the intellectual - and scored 24 and 21 respectively. That made a lot more sense.

Nicely balanced, well written, clearly presented. It's made clear that these are nine different equally valid ways of finding God, and that we mostly have one or two preferred ways, although it's worth experimenting with others from time to time. my only slight reservation was the insistence -repeated a few times - that it was of vital importance to be part of an established congregation meeting for services... even though he also points out that one hour per week can do very little to meet most people's spiritual needs overall.

Recommended. ( )

Despite the 9 pathways, this doesn't correspond to the enneagram. However, it's general purpose is the same : ways to better appreciate your own strengths, and how your preferences can interact and be enhanced by others' different approaches. Highly recommended.

This book makes an excellent point that we connect with God in different ways. He also points out that some different ways we can all develop closer to God. This is not the book to get all sorts of ideas about the traditional disciplines, but it might give you ideas on how you will connect to God. He does cover some ideas that aren't typically covered in most of the usual texts however. It believe it also gave me a better understanding of why other denominations do what they do, etc. as well. ( )

A rather interesting book. There almost seems to be parallels between the nine types described in here (naturalist, sensate, traditionalist, ascetic, activist, caregiver, enthusiast, contemplative, intellectual) and the Enneagram. The author has obviously done a great deal of observation of how people function, in fact how, differently they make act. ( )