Henri Nouwen

Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen (Nouen), (Nijkerk, January 24, 1932 – Hilversum, September 21, 1996) was a Dutch-born Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books about spirituality.

Contents

Writing

Nouwen's books are still being read today. His books include The Wounded Healer, In the Name of Jesus, Clowning in Rome, The Life of the Beloved and The Way of the Heart. After nearly two decades of teaching at the Menninger Foundation Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, and at the University of Notre Dame, Yale University and Harvard University, he went to work with mentally challenged people at the L'Arche community of Daybreak in Toronto, Canada. After a long period of declining energy, which he chronicled in his final book, Sabbatical Journey, he died in September 1996 from a sudden heart attack.

His spirituality was influenced notably by his friendship with Jean Vanier. At the invitation of Vanier, Nouwen visited L'Arche in France, the first of over 130 communities around the world where people with developmental disabilities live with those who care for them. In 1986 Nouwen accepted the position of pastor for a L'Arche community called "Daybreak" in Canada, near Toronto. Nouwen wrote about his relationship with Adam, a core member at L'Arche Daybreak with profound developmental disabilities, in a book titled Adam: God's Beloved. Father Nouwen was a good friend of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.

The results of a Christian Century magazine survey conducted in 2003 indicate that Nouwen's work was a first choice of authors for Catholic and mainline Protestant clergy.[1]

One of his most famous works is Inner Voice of Love, his diary from December 1987 to June 1988 during one of his most serious bouts with clinical depression.

When Henri Nouwen died in 1996, he entrusted Sue Mosteller with his estate, making her the literary executrix of his works.

Themes

One of Nouwens' major ongoing themes involved his struggle reconciling his depression with his Christian faith. In Return of the Prodigal Son, for example, Nouwen describes love and forgiveness as unconditional.

Nouwen also wrote several essays on the necessity of peacemaking. He used God's Love as a justification for the preservation of life, as well as saying "No" to both Vietnam and Nuclear War .

His struggle to reconcile his priestly vows of celibacy with his human desire for physical and emotional intimacy was also theme in his writings.

Sexuality

Nouwen is thought to have struggled with his sexuality.[2] "Although his homosexuality was known by those close to him, he never publicly claimed a homosexual identity."[3] Although he never directly addressed the matter of his sexuality in the writings he published during his lifetime, it is said that he acknowledged the struggle both in his private journals and in discussions with friends,[4] both of which were extensively referenced by Michael Ford in the biography Wounded Prophet, which was published after Nouwen's death. Ford suggests that Nouwen only became fully comfortable with his sexual orientation in the last few years of his life, and that Nouwen's depression was caused in part by the conflict between his priestly vows of celibacy and the sense of loneliness and longing for intimacy that he experienced. Ford conjectured, "This took an enormous emotional, spiritual and physical toll on his life and may have contributed to his early death."[2] There is no evidence that Nouwen ever broke his vow of celibacy.[2][3]

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ Carroll, Jackson W. (2003-08-23). "Pastors' Picks: What Preachers are Reading". Christian Century 120 (17): 31. ISSN 0009-5281. 
  2. ^ a b c Gibson, David (2004, page 191, ISBN 0060587202). The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful Are Shaping a New American Catholicism. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060587208. http://books.google.com/?id=c4J9MLLSjgwC&dq=%22Henri+Nouwen%22+gay. Retrieved 2008-03-31. 
  3. ^ a b McGinley, Dugan (2004, page 185-186, ISBN 0826418368). Acts of Faith, Acts of Love: Gay Catholic Autobiographies as Sacred Texts. Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 9780826418364. http://books.google.com/?id=Wz2akt9mPVAC&pg=PA185&dq=%22Henri+Nouwen%22+gay. Retrieved 2008-03-31. 
  4. ^ Elford, R. John (2003, page 72, ISBN 0853235198). The Foundation of Hope: Turning Dreams Into Reality. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9780853235194. http://books.google.com/?id=7Embf-JhjnIC&pg=PA72&dq=%22Henri+Nouwen%22+gay. Retrieved 2008-03-31. 

External links