| Title | : | The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0232521026 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780232521023 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 100 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1971 |
The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society Reviews
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I set out to read Henri Nouwen's 100 page book thinking I would finish it in a few days. Instead, as always with Nouwen, it took me several weeks to read. Every time I picked it up I found myself flipping back through my previous reading, and every time I set it down I found myself spending days processing the few pages I just completed.
Nouwen is, at heart, a philosopher and a psychologist and his writing is organized according to a logical formula. Some may struggle against that structure or with that jargon, but if you can move past it you will find beautiful truth within and an amazing understanding of our very current culture (despite the fact that the book was written almost 30 years ago).
Nouwen seemed to anticipate the hopelessness that prevails in our present society, the growing sense among our youth that they cannot create a better future for their world, and to that hopeless he encourages us to move out of the old formula for ministry that has us "thinking in terms of large-scale organization, getting people together in churches, schools and hospitals, and running the show as a circus director" and and realize that "pastoral conversation is not merely a skillful use of conversation techniques to manipulate people into the Kingdom of God, but a deep human encounter in which a man is willing to put his own faith and doubt, his own hope and despair, his own light and darkness at the disposal of others who want to find a way through their confusion and touch the solid core of life." The overarching theme of the book resides in the following passage:"Jesus has given this story a new fullness by making his own broken body the way to health, to liberation and new life. Thus like Jesus, he who proclaims liberation is called not only to care for his own wounds and the wounds of others, but also to make his wounds into a major source of his healing power."
As Nouwen writes, it is precisely in this hopeless culture that the "wounded healer" can make his life and his own suffering available to others, and "making one's own wounds a source of healing, therefore, does not call for a sharing or superficial personal pains, but for a constant willingness to see one's one pain and suffering as rising from the depth of the human condition which all men share." Perhaps then we too, as Nouwen concludes, can understand that "...the imitation of Christ does not mean to live a life like Christ but to live your life as authentically as Christ lived his...." -
Nouwen’s opening chapter, a description of ‘Nuclear Man’, a prototype ‘modern man’, almost made me give up the book entirely. Nuclear Man—to me—sounded like a 1960/70/80’s person (the book was published in 1979) disillusioned with the Cold War and the Super Powers, living from day-to-day in constant fear of complete annihilation. I recognize Nouwen’s Nuclear Man who, ‘has lost naïve faith in the possibilities of technologies and is painfully aware that the same powers that enable man to create new life styles carry the potential for self-destruction.’
He is just not who most Healers will be ministering to today. Rather, now we have an entirely different situation, a generation with strong faith in science and technology. For many, they have even become god(s).
After this first chapter, however, I fell in step with the rest of Nouwen’s ideas/concepts concerning ‘the Wounded Healer’.
Nouwen’s explanation of ‘articulation’ and its importance to being an effective healer was phenomenal. A minister who is able to do that is worth his/her weight in gold! I marked the heck out of those pages, with, “yes, Yes! YES!” thinking all the while of those in my life who were able to unlock doors for me because they could recognize the work of God in the event of my life, those I loved, or elsewhere. This is an invaluable skill.
The critique of the elderly man in the hospital who was dying and the young minister who was trying to minister to him was also invaluable.
The best part of the whole book was the legend from the Talmud concerning the Messiah which I wish I could recount. It is in two parts and each part reveals the great healing which can come from woundedness. Our wounds do not preclude us from helping others; they qualify us if we know how to let them.
Much wisdom!
July 12, 2018: Yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of my 1st Spiritual Director's death. When I visited her friend and companion, Pat, who cared for RM in the last years of her life (she had advanced MS) Pat asked me go through RM's books and take as many as I wanted. This book was one of the few which I did not already have and knew I would read immediately. Took it to Adoration last week and have greatly enjoyed it so far. Felt like I was sharing it with RM. -
I came to Henri Nouwen on the recommendation of Fred Rogers, and I was not disappointed. This slim volume is somewhat dated (I was pleasantly surprised to see two King Crimson songs quoted in the second essay, for instance), but its central message is timeless: that the very experiences that wound us most deeply are also those from which we can draw the greatest strength. Nouwen does not romanticize suffering; it is not suffering itself that is beautiful, but rather what human beings can do with it. Nouwen uses the metaphor of the Grand Canyon: a scar on the landscape in one sense, and yet in another sense a place of almost unbearable beauty. I use the metaphor of a bog: nobody likes to get stuck in a bog. It's fetid and rank and sometimes it feels as though you'll never escape. But a bog is also the place where coal forms; and coal burns. Indeed--and this is Nouwen's central thesis--it is through facing our own hurts and fears that we can begin to help others face theirs - not to make the hurts and fears disappear, but to be fully present with them in the midst of their darkness and, with the coal of our own experience, to be for them a fire in the night.
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I read this years and years ago. It changed my life.
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The Wounded Healer, first published in 1979, offers a contemplative path for ministry. While it's obvious that Nouwen has celibate Catholic priests in mind as his audience, I found much that applied to my life as a married Protestant laywoman. Part of this was helped by the Henri Nouwen Legacy Trust's choice to update the language a bit without changing the examples or gist of the text.
Nouwen's ideas of the wounded healer, hospitality, and the contemplative critic were particularly meaningful to me. Nouwen truly grasps "servant leadership," and the abject humility required for all Christians, particularly leaders. Having been through a few churches that were nearly cults of personality, I found his vision of Christian leadership deeply refreshing. Gone is the vision of fame and platform, returned is the vision of "doing little things with great love."
A major disconnect early in the text for me was his discussion of the "rootless generations." Much of it simply doesn't apply to the currently young generations. He quotes a 1969 study by Jeffrey K. Hadden that speaks of this generation as "almost void of notions for exercise of responsibility toward others." (33) That simply doesn't ring true today. If anything, the youth of today are overburdened by such responsibility. Social media has widened and increased peer pressure, creating a legalistic system of conformity to social and political opinion. This portion may become relevant again at some point, but for now, it made the book feel dated.
Overall, I enjoyed reading The Wounded Healer and I'll return for Nouwen's insights again. This is the first book I've read by him and I look forward to more. -
This is up there with "Reaching Out" as one of Nouwen's books that remind the reader that he truly can do it all when it comes to Christian spirituality and faith. The book diagnosed current issues that humans face in their worldviews and identifies explicit remedies that a "minister" can partake in to heal these issues. This was a book on anthropology and Christianity's humble approach to meeting the hurts of the world. The dynamics of a "minister" and their own suffering plays a huge role in serving others. (Minister is in quotes because this is not explicit to the profession of a minister but a call to all Christians)
For a long time I was pretty bored with Nouwen after reading his well-known, spiritual books. Books like this remind me that he has put in the work of studying the world and how to offer sentiments to help the situation. I think I will read those books with more weight to them now. -
Sometimes I really understood what the author going for, sometimes the book challenged my personal outlooks and beliefs and sometimes it was a really challenging read.
I feel like this book really makes you think, even though its examples and disjointed nature make it a bit difficult to access.
I enjoyed my time with it, sometimes.
However, it might not be for everyone. -
Nouwen is such a thoughtful thinker and writer. Always appreciate his teachings and the way he communicates them. Good read for anyone who is ministering to people.
“His [Jesus’s] appearance in our midst made it undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing human society are not separate tasks, but are as interconnected as the two beams of the cross.” -
This short book focuses on the paradox of ministry in a society of alienated individuals and the need to embrace our own frailty to make ourselves useful to others. I found it very useful in unwinding some myths I had accepted about ministry.
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There are a lot of rich insights in this little book. At some point I want to really reflect on some of the meatier statements.
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“No one can help anyone without becoming involved, without entering with his whole person into the painful situation, without taking the risk of becoming hurt, wounded or even destroyed in the process. The beginning and the end of all Christian leadership is to give your life for others.”
I expected this book to be about how God brings life from suffering, but it was mainly aimed at the minister’s role to do so through Him. It was good, but I was hoping it would focus more on the Lord’s character. Still important and I love Nouwen. -
A very helpful read, and a needed angle on the role of the minister. The “contemporary society” of the book is of course, no longer contemporary. The insights are now about America’s grandparents, but the reader can set a trajectory and draw from Nouwen’s insights to form new insights about our current day. I suppose that in many ways this type of “wounded healer” is still a needed model. I know few leaders who truly do it, especially fused with gospel hope. I would suggest that Christians who want to minister read this book and seek to update it in their own contexts.
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I never get tired of Father Henri's work. He is very much himself a wounded healer. His capacity to reach into his own soul and life experience to provide his audience with tremendous depth and richness is unparalleled. Highly recommend.
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I’ve read few books that have truly shaped and transformed my way of thinking and subsequently my way of living. This book stands among them.
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I've read only two of Nouwen's books so far, and just from those I can say his books warrant a 2nd and maybe a 3rd reading. His insights are rich, dense, and provoke a lot of contemplation. This is most definitely not a book to peruse through, but something to meditate on. I love the title- it perfectly describes the subject of this marvelous short book. People in helping professions develop their compassion and ability to help heal others by being wounded themselves, just as Christ was wounded. Highly recommend this book for pastors, counselors and anyone who wants to help others.
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Nouwen's discussion of what makes a good Christian minister ( and by extension a good Christian) are extremely important today. His comments about loneliness are also very thought provoking.
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I like how every chapter is systematically introducing ideas, then explaining and concluding them at the end. Some of those ideas such as the difference between nuclear and prenuclear man or what are the challenges to hospitality in todays world are new for me and I find their definition here understandable and relatable.
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Nouwen opens this book by giving light to a particular worldview that he sees as slowly becoming the norm in his modern society. This paradigm, that he calls the “nuclear man” is characterized by boredom with the world, apathy, confusion, a lack of hope that is paralyzing, and some other aspects that have, I believe, lost their relevance since 1970. Yet, they still give a fascinating insight into a situation that is part of the proximate history of the society we are faced with today. Something that I found particularly valuable about this introduction, however, is the way that it demonstrates well the extent to which an appropriate view of the world and man’s place in it can no longer be taken for granted, and needs to be reintroduced into society.
Probably the most significant shortcoming, however, is that Nouwen spends almost the entire book talking about what makes a good “Christian leader,” without talking about Jesus Christ. There is really only one very vague and confusing paragraph, about 3/4 of the way through the book, in which he basically just says “and of course all of this is related to Christ, because Christ also has basic concern for people.” In fact, there are no references to the New Testament in the whole book. The only references to scripture are a couple of psalm quotes right at the end. There is literally nothing about his concept of a “Christian leader” that makes it Christian, and the whole thing has just left confused about how and why he is using that term. There was, moreover, a bit of theology that I found questionable, and would love for the chance to ask him more about. -
The book looked like a quick read due to its brief ~100 page-length, but this was deceptive. I feel Nouwen's message in the first half of the book, while still relevant, represents the society and culture of my parents' generation. "We have lost faith in technology," he writes. This is the opposite of the truth for Generation Y (and whatever the subsequent generations have been labeled). My peers put faith in little beyond science and technology. Writing in 1972, Nouwen perhaps saw an age that used technology to send young men in helicopters to napalm and Agent Orange a country they didn't understand. Dismal technology indeed, but the personal computer was soon to reinvigorate the culture on that viewpoint.
The second half of the book is the relevant half for a modern audience. Nouwen's insight that we can all share out of our woundedness--the idea that loneliness is elemental--make it worth reading. The idea that we must live and die on our own convictions, and yet others must do the same, points to the soundness of this apparently paradoxical idea. Why must we be lonely? Because we must be ourselves, accepting God and life and fear and love as they come to us. Why is loneliness essential? If one cannot endure it, one cannot be free. And Nouwen's point that we as wounded healers allow others into our space, saying, "I too am alone, come and sit with me,"--it is a strange one, but one that I think speaks to the intersection of free will and our ability to help others. -
Synopsis
Nouwen opens with a description of “nuclear man,” the modern man who is forced to see that mankind's creative powers have reached a point where they hold the potential for imminent self-destruction. Nuclear man is further characterized by a historical dislocation, a fragmented ideology, and a search for immortality. Though originally intended to portray the youth coming of age at the time of the book's first publication in 1972, it is perhaps an even more accurate representation of the generations from that time forward.
The succeeding chapters share insights for ministry to the rootless and hopeless, emphasizing the necessity for one who would minister to others to first open himself up to participate fully in the suffering of those he is attempting to help and to share freely the compassion born of his own similar struggles.
The final chapter further explores the wounds of the minister and the grace by which they may become sources of healing to others. In the author's words, “A Christian community is therefore a healing community not because wounds are cured and pains are alleviated, but because wounds and pains become openings or occasions for a new vision. Mutual confession then becomes a mutual deepening of hope, and sharing weakness becomes a reminder to one and all of the coming strength.” -
Nouwen is in this book, as in all his books, deft, compassionate and insightful into the condition of human suffering and despair. He offers a number of insights into the then-current crisis of "nuclear man". While we might have moved beyond that particular historical epoch, many of the observations remain timely. The last part of the book lays out a very balanced and healthy approach for a minister to drawing from one's own suffering in order to minister to others. That said, this book was by far not his best. One could glean the same insights plus many more in either "The Return of the Prodigal Son" or "In the Name of Jesus". This book also happens to have been written before Nouwen's transfer to the L'Arche community in 1985 to serve the mentally handicapped. That experience had a deepening effect on Nouwen that seems to be a watershed for his writings both pre- and post-L'Arche—the latter being deeper, more Christ-centered, and somehow much more profound.
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left me breathless by the end. i felt like some of his social analysis (esp re: generational difference) isn’t exactly razor sharp, especially reading now. But it’s near irrelevant considering his overflowing heart that can be felt throughout this book. And he references king crimson and george jackson, as a white christian chaplain writing in ‘72? Whats not to love?!?
Anyway, as a Buddhist Multi-faith chaplain, this will serve as a resource throughout the rest of my life, one I’m sure to read over and over. damn. -
A stirring little book that moved me towards more affection for the Trinity. I imbibed this book slowly, like wine, because it is heady and rich. Thought-provoking. Especially enjoyed the chapter case study on a sick and dying man being visited by a pastor. Also feel great respect for Nouwen when I learned that he spent his last few years on earth ministering to disabled people- he believed what he preached.
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I wasn't entirely sure how to rate this one. On the one hand it is weird to read, with a lot of metaphors and flowery language. On the other it offers an interesting perspective on what it means to help people. The four chapters felt a little disconnected from each other and to me it was more like reading four individual stories that are loosely connected rather than a book on one specific topic.
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In the first section of this book on the “nuclear man” I’ll be honest I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it. A decent diagnostic of the modern man, perhaps, but it felt dry, clinical. Moving forward from there, though, Nouwen has this incredible ability to reach past a surface-level piety and trite answers to suffering and reach into the heart of what ails us.
The book is about being a good leader/minister. But even if that is not specifically your calling, much of what is discussed is pertinent to the ministry of being a fellow-man. I have been given a lot to contemplate. -
I feel like this book is one I’ll need to read a few times to appreciate the depth of it. I really loved chapter four, Ministry by a Lonely Minister. So simple but deep to minister in such a way that we allow God to use our own suffering to be a place where we can be truly hospitable to a person, and have them feel comfort enough to share their own suffering.
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The first half reads like a sociological biopsy report—a brilliant one at that. The second half, however, offers the most stunning cartography of human relation—of how souls truly reach souls—of how only our deepest parts, our loneliness and the suffering therein, can touch the deepest parts of others.
