The Road Back to Jesus (Part 4: Knowledge of Self, Knowledge of God)

The internet has given birth to a strange trend: misattributed or entirely fabricated quotations from particularly famous writers and thinkers. It’s become problematic enough that the official C.S. Lewis website has an entire section entitled “Surprised by Misquotes.”

Ian Morgan Cron, author of The Road Back to You, one of the leading books exploring the intersection of the Enneagram and Christianity, does not misquote John Calvin, but he takes the quotation so far outside of its intended context that Calvin’s theology is unrecognizable.

“Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God.”

John Calvin

The quote comes from the opening of Calvin’s “Institutes,” his magnum opus.  It is not a false quotation, but, as Cron uses it, it’s taken out of context and weakened to a point where it feels like Cron didn’t even read Calvin’s work before he slapped it into his book. 

John Calvin didn’t just say that you must know yourself to know God. He also (in the same paragraph) maintained that you must know God to know yourself. In the same paragraph, Calvin explains that the knowledge of God and self are “connected by many ties” and admits the difficulty of untangling them to find “which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.” Calvin wants us to know ourselves in our “poverty” and remember the “miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first man has plunged us.” He also recognizes that, “no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts toward the God in whom he lives and moves.”

See, Calvin (and Luther and Bonhoeffer and many many others) would agree that knowing oneself is an important part of one’s walk with God.  But, the knowledge of God is the work of the Holy Spirit. Without Jesus, we can see ourselves only as lost and hopeless sinners. The Catechism student in me was playing Luther’s words on repeat as I read The Road Back to You for a second time, almost reflexively defending against the untruths hidden within it:

“I can not by my own thinking or choosing believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” 

Martin Luther

If every reader had this kind of doctrinal arsenal at their disposal I might not be as concerned about the dance around the truth that’s happening in The Road Back to You. But many will find themselves ill-prepared for battle or caught unawares. 

Some, like me, may get through an initial read without finding anything objectionable. Cron’s writing style, his witty and humorous voice, his wisdom and authority concerning the Enneagram, and his constant recognition of his own faults make him seem like incredibly trustworthy narrator. It was only upon returning for a second, more thorough exploration of his theology that I began to see the deep holes in the way that Cron presents the Gospel. 

Come back tomorrow as we wrap up our look at the Enneagram and the Road Back to Jesus.

Join the Conversation:

• How can a discerning Christian make the most of the vast array of literature available while also remaining “on guard” for false theology?  
• What is your favorite mis-attributed quotation? Have you ever found one “in the wild?”