Wounded Prophet: A Portrait of Henri J.M. Nouwen

Summary: A biography of Nouwen by a late-in-life friend (and journalist), which helps to give context to Nouwen's prolific writing. 

Like many, I have been impacted by Nouwen's writing, but especially after reading several posthumously published books, I realized I needed more biographical context to understand what Nouwen was about.

It is incredible that more than 25 years after his death, new books are still being edited from his vast writing. (The most recent of which is Flying, Falling, Catching.) I am mixed on these posthumous books. I don't think any of the ones I have read stand up to the best of his books published while he was alive. But they are also better than the worst of his books as well. Nouwen wrote an enormous volume of books. According to Wikipedia, he published 42 books while alive, not including 35 additional books to which he contributed an introduction, afterward, or chapter. And there have been 31 additional books of posthumous work or compilations.

Part of what Ford makes clear is that while Nouwen strived to live up to his writing, there was a disconnect.

“It is also difficult to explain the author without acknowledging a certain disconnection between his writing and his living, not because of any scandalous gap between the two, but because he always managed to write way beyond what he himself could actually live. This was especially true in terms of what he said about solitude and community. Nouwen's spirit, mind, and body all ran ahead of him; his books were often reminders to himself of how he ought to be.” (Kindle location 180)

“To be a teacher means indeed to lay down your life for your friends, to become a ‘martyr' in the original sense of witness. To be a teacher means to offer your own faith experience, your loneliness and intimacy, your doubts and hopes, your failures and successes to your students as a context in which they can struggle with their own quest for meaning. To be a teacher means to have the same boldness as Paul, who said to the Corinthians: ‘Take me as a model as I take Christ' (1 Corinthians 11:1). To be a teacher means to say as those who want to learn what Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Come and see' (John 1:39).” (Kindle location 1898)