The Wounded Prophet: A portrait of Henri J.M. Nouwen - Hardcover

Ford, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 038549372X ISBN 13: 9780385493727

Publisher: Doubleday, 1999

Synopsis

Henri Nouwen, a Dutch Roman Catholic priest, was one of the most beloved and important spiritual writers of the twentieth century. His death in 1996 has only added to his stature, and his books, including The Inner Voice of Love, The Wounded Healer, and The Return of the Prodigal Son, have become cherished classics. For thousands of readers around the world, Nouwen's influence as a teacher and author is considered equal to or greater than that of the century's great spiritual writers, C.S. Lewis and Thomas Merton.

Although Nouwen could be radically revealing about his personal thoughts and struggles, there are nonetheless gaps in our understanding of who Nouwen was.

With The Wounded Prophet, readers are given the first extensive look into this man who touched so many, through his own words but most powerfully through the eyes of those people around the world who knew Nouwen best. While researching this compelling biography, BBC producer Michael Ford conducted wide-ranging interviews with Nouwen's friends, colleagues, and family members. What he discovered was far more compelling than what he had imagined: Though Nouwen was indeed the generous and loving man many thought he was, he was also never able to find consistent peace in his own life. Tormenting him were profound feelings of anxiety, insecurity, and loneliness. This portrait gives an honest and well-balanced account of Nouwen's life that leaves no stone unturned, investigating his childhood, his family, his sexuality, and his life as a priest and member of the L'Arche Daybreak community in Toronto.

About this title

Review:

Henri Nouwen's devotional writings are effective because their revealing, personal voice invites readers to share an effortless intimacy with him. This literary intimacy, in turn, helps many readers achieve greater closeness with others and with God. Michael Ford's biography of Nouwen, Wounded Prophet, draws on interviews with Nouwen's colleagues and close friends who describe Nouwen, predictably, as the generous and loving man readers have met through Nouwen's books. Yet Ford's biography also contains some striking surprises about the extreme loneliness and anxiety that plagued Nouwen throughout his life. Wounded Prophet is especially insightful regarding the connections between Nouwen's homosexuality, which he grappled with in earnest during the last years of his life, and his theology, which became increasingly grounded in the life of the senses during that same period. Ford has a clear understanding of and deep compassion for his subject, whose vocation he summarizes beautifully near the end of the book: "Like many mystics, Henri Nouwen was in tune with the energy of divine life, passionate about Jesus, and committed to speaking words of hope from his own mysterious anguish. It was a vocation for connecting the spiritual with the earthbound." --Michael Joseph Gross

From the Back Cover:

"Ford’s theological training allows him to engage Nouwen’s ideas and evaluate intelligently his place in the theological landscape, and he discusses Nouwen’s character and struggles with compassion and understanding." –Publishers Weekly

"Wounded Prophet shows Michael Ford himself not only capable in his field of fact-finding and reporting, but well grounded in understanding the terrain of spirituality and adept at maneuvering the complexity, ambiguity, the contradictions and elusiveness, the height and depth to be explored in a single human life. Above all, he displays that most desirable trait to be sought in biographers: total immersion in the subject of his study, complete honesty, and keen sensitivity in handling what belongs to another."–Robert Durback, America

"Ford concentrates on his declared aim of painting a portrait, [and] the book is eloquent, endearing, and convincing. Its brush strokes are both broad and detailed, the personality of its complex subject shining through as the eyes of a good portrait follow the viewer. Those who knew Henri Nouwen will meet him again; those who did not will make the acquaintance of a remarkable man."–Shirley du Boulay, The Tablet

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 038549372X
• ISBN 13: 9780385493727
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256