HENRI NOUWEN: HIS LIFE AND VISION

Hardcover

With more than 150 photos--most never published before--Michael O'Laughlin tells the amazing story of one of the most popular--and complex--spiritual figures of our time. Henri Nouwen's immense impact came in part from his willingness to draw deeply on his own experience, inviting readers to share his joys, his anguish, and his spiritual journey. That journey led him from his home in Holland to America; from a series of prestigious academic posts to a Trappist monastery, to the poor of Latin America, and finally to Canada, where he found his final home in a L'Arche community devoted to the care of handicapped adults. Nouwen's life was a spiritual text that reflected the very themes he shared in his writings: the struggle between intimacy, community, and solitude; the gospel challenge of "downward mobility"; the question of how to make our life and death a gift to others; discovering the face of Christ in the world; realizing our own identity as God's beloved. That life and that wisdom is recounted indelibly in Henri Nouwen. Michael O'Laughlin has received advanced degrees in theology from Oxford University and Harvard (where he served as Henri Nouwen's teaching assistant). He is the editor of Nouwen's award-winning Jesus: A Gospel, and author of God's Beloved: A Spiritual Biography of Henri Nouwen. He is a spiritual director at the Healing Center in Arlington, Massachusetts.