When Isabel Myers named her book, Gifts Differing, after the Apostle Paul’s passage on spiritual gifts in Romans chapter 12, she did not, at least publicly, speculate on a connection between psychological types and spiritual gifts. Did she believe there was a connection? She almost certainly considered it, and if not for the monumental task of creating a type indicator, she might have begun connecting the dots.
The theme of the following research is to find evidence of correlations between the two realms. The conclusion reached is that 16 of the 20 or 21 gifts specifically listed in the New Testament correlate perfectly with the 16 types of the MBTI. The first part defends the correlations; the rest examines the theology and implications of the theory.
So just how radical are the ideas presented here? That will depend on the perspective of the reader. For some, everything presented here is counter to what spiritual gifts are all about. Others have begun to see connections between gifts and personality, and may be wondering, as I was, ‘who is doing the research to find out?’ Some of these same people will, if there are any truths in the following concepts, extract, clarify, apply, and expand on them far beyond what one gifted member can do. This is the way the church was meant to work.
When this all started 12 years ago, the responses to the theory were almost universally negative. This probably had much more to do with the poor quality of the early drafts than with the people reading them. Even now, some of the explanations aren’t very clear or thorough, but hopefully that will improve through constructive criticism.
Recent support has been encouraging, though, suggesting that many in the church will give the theory a chance. But new ideas, especially radical ones, must be put through the fire of critical examination to see what survives. May this be the start of a new dialogue about the gifts we’ve been given, and the gifts we’re meant to be to each other.
The theme of the following research is to find evidence of correlations between the two realms. The conclusion reached is that 16 of the 20 or 21 gifts specifically listed in the New Testament correlate perfectly with the 16 types of the MBTI. The first part defends the correlations; the rest examines the theology and implications of the theory.
So just how radical are the ideas presented here? That will depend on the perspective of the reader. For some, everything presented here is counter to what spiritual gifts are all about. Others have begun to see connections between gifts and personality, and may be wondering, as I was, ‘who is doing the research to find out?’ Some of these same people will, if there are any truths in the following concepts, extract, clarify, apply, and expand on them far beyond what one gifted member can do. This is the way the church was meant to work.
When this all started 12 years ago, the responses to the theory were almost universally negative. This probably had much more to do with the poor quality of the early drafts than with the people reading them. Even now, some of the explanations aren’t very clear or thorough, but hopefully that will improve through constructive criticism.
Recent support has been encouraging, though, suggesting that many in the church will give the theory a chance. But new ideas, especially radical ones, must be put through the fire of critical examination to see what survives. May this be the start of a new dialogue about the gifts we’ve been given, and the gifts we’re meant to be to each other.
powered by performancing firefox
No comments:
Post a Comment