WOUNDED PROPHET: A Portrait of Henri J.M. Nouwen
By Michael Ford,
Toronto: Random House Doubleday Canada 1999, 233 pp., hardcover, $35.95 Cdn.ISBN #0-385-49372-X

You may want to visit the Web Site in the memory of Henry Nouwen.

Reviewed by: Wayne A. Holst

"It speaks to my condition" is a Quaker expression many have applied to Henri Nouwen's message and impact on their lives.

When Nouwen died in 1996 the world lost a most compelling and compassionate human being. A wide range of people mourned the passing of a prolific and influential spiritual guide. Nouwen reached an unparalleled cross section of humanity. He gathered around him an international network of friends as an acclaimed academic priest and later as the pastor of L'Arche Daybreak at Richmond Hill, Ontario, a community of mentally dysfunctional adults and those who live with them.

Whether they had met him, worked with him, or simply absorbed his words in print,
many thought they knew Henri personally. This could be said for such disparate types as Eastern Orthodox monks, evangelical Protestants and radical Roman Catholics. Secularized Jews and persons claiming no faith were drawn to this rather eccentric individual whose message clearly transcended creedal and cultural boundaries.

Some believe Nouwen may surpass Thomas Merton and C.S. Lewis in terms of twentieth century spiritual influence. Other are more cautious, suggesting that only time will tell. His books are selling better now than they ever did. He obviously continues to speak to the frustrations of our times.
A brilliant thinker, writer and performing orator, though simultaneously overly sentimental and self-absorbed, Nouwen popularised existing concepts rather than creating new ones. He made his own faith struggles available to others, saying in effect that he didn't know the answers either, but that it was possible to get a better grip on things if the issues were experienced and named.

The book is not intended as a full scale biography or assessment of Nouwen's literary output. Is is not a systematic review of his thinking but an exploration of a life. To learn about the man, Ford, a religious affairs producer with the BBC, conducted 100 interviews in Europe and America. The resulting volume is packed with many new discoveries and serves as one of the first critical evaluations of Nouwen's life.
Periodically, the writer seems to be overwhelmed by the dynamics with which he is dealing. His discoveries need more sifting and careful examination. Distance and discernment are required to achieve more nuanced conclusions.

Veterans and newcomers should find Wounded Prophet worth reading. Nouwen's life, like that of many mystics, was paradox writ large. Generally speaking he lived that life and its contradictions as openly and authentically as he knew how.
From his own experience, Nouwen learned that emotional wounds need to be honoured and shared; not denied. It is in mutual human weakness rather than strength that diverse people find common ground, discovering latent vitality and new creativity. Prophets are people who cannot be controlled by human ideologies or systems.

They judge and love the world by other standards. Nouwen was indeed a wounded prophet.
Ford unpacks some Nouwen paradoxes. Sexuality and spirituality are interrelated dimensions of our humanity. Acknowledging Nouwen's homosexual orientation, the author reveals more of the gift of his authentic self and the hard struggles that implied. Nouwen always tended to write beyond what he was actually able to live. His intellectualism was tempered, then revolutionised, by insights into human experience that he gradually began to live himself. He was both a boundary figure and a faithful priest who sought to build bridges within and beyond himself.
Ford suggests that the discord between Nouwen's early awareness of his sexual orientation and his deep commitment to the priesthood was the primary reason for his lifelong anguish. The issue runs deeper than that. His full humanity, rather than only his sexuality, was always involved in his quest.

His assumed identity was profoundly challenged once he became part of a loving, supportive but confronting community at L'Arche and involved with relationships he so much craved but from which he could not hide. Large pieces of himself had been denied through the agency of his intellect. He needed freedom and security to integrate heart, mind and body in healing ways. He began to reconstruct his identity in order to revision a new pastoral vocation for himself.

Fortunately, an authentically human though also deeply flawed community centered on the poor provided Nouwen with a place to live and minister and from which to share his rich and significant spiritual treasures. Wounded Prophet is an extensive and believable but preliminary account of a complex and incredibly gifted person who stuggled all his life to be true to himself and to his faith.