https://archive.org/details/befriendinglifee00port
See this imageFollow the Author
Henri J. M. Nouwen
Follow
Befriending Life: Encounters With Henri Nouwen Hardcover – 1 June 2001
by Beth Porter (Editor), Susan Brown (Editor), Philip Coulter (Editor)
5.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings
Print length272 pages
Product details
Publisher : Doubleday (1 June 2001)
Language : English
Hardcover : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 0385502028
ISBN-13 : 978-0385502023
Dimensions : 15.24 x 3.18 x 22.23 cmCustomer Reviews:
5.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Follow
Henri J. M. Nouwen
Henri Nouwen was born in Holland in 1932 and ordained a Catholic priest in 1957. He obtained his doctorandus in psychology from Nijmegen University in The Netherlands and taught at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard. He experienced the monastic life with Trappist monks at the Abbey of the Genesee, lived among the poor in Latin America with the Maryknoll missioners, and was interested and active in numerous causes related to social justice. After a lifetime of seeking, Henri Nouwen finally found his home in Canada, as pastor of L'Arche Daybreak - where people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers live together in community.
Henri Nouwen wrote over 40 books on spirituality and the spiritual life that have sold millions of copies and been translated into dozens of languages. His vision of spirituality was broad and inclusive, and his compassion embraced all of humankind.
He died in 1996. His work and his spirit live on.
Henri Nouwen pronounced his name "Henry Now-en." For more information on his life and work, please visit www.henrinouwen.org .
Customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top reviews from other countries
Daniel J. Maloney
5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Meaningful Stories of A Contemporary MysticReviewed in the United States on 21 May 2002
Verified Purchase
Henri Nouwen made remarkable contributions to many people of all religious denominations, particularly Christians, throughout his lifetime. Priest, Scholar, Psychologist, Professor, Chaplain and Author were the professional and formal roles he held throughout his lifetime. Yet, ultimately Nouwen was a deeply human man who has come to be somewhat widely recognized as something of a contemporary mystic since his death in 1996.
Nouwen's more than thirty-two books give very human voice and practical dimension to the struggles which life presents to us all. His personal struggles to live his own life defined his writings and perhaps are what made them so uniquely effective in reaching the wide audience he managed to draw. While clearly Christian, they were writings that were offered as `an invitation to reflection and personal search' as opposed to any kind of theological mandates. As a result of his openness and his efforts toward inclusiveness, Nouwen was embraced by people of many faiths who found inspiration in his writings.
In Befriending Life, a wide variety of people who knew Henri in one capacity or another, tell their story of their encounters with him. Clearly, Henri Nouwen was a man who had a remarkable ability to reach and affirm others. Befriending Life is essentially a series of portraits of Henri Nouwen given through the writings and interviews of a wide array of people who came to know Henri personally in some capacity or other. The contributors include co-workers, former students, trapeze artists, retarded persons and even near-strangers who were somehow, often through the most unlikely series of coincidences, deeply touched through Henri's ministry.
As Nouwen was truly a geographical and vocational wanderer throughout his life, this book gives a delightfully engaging account of a deeply restless man who somehow managed to give voice to many more universal human struggles through the examination of his own.
For anyone who has enjoyed Henri Nouwen's writings, Befriending Life gives the reader a much better understanding of the human being behind the words. Flawed, broken, restless, seeking.... Henri went about his life most earnestly and seriously -- attempting to make his world a better place by reaching out to other human beings, one by one.
For the newcomer to Nouwen, here is a wonderful opportunity to become intrigued by this man's life and to perhaps begin a more lasting relationship with Nouwen through this invitation to his many books.
Befriending Life is a wonderfully engaging book. It weaves together many people's personal experiences with Henri Nouwen and ultimately creates perhaps the most informative biography available on the man.
Highly recommended!
James J. Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota USA
Read less
5 people found this helpfulReport abuse
Kerry Walters
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful tribute to a wonderful spiritual directorReviewed in the United States on 4 October 2001
Verified Purchase
Beth Porter, Susan Brown, and Philip Coulter have done a magnificent job of collecting memories of Henri Nouwen from those who loved him. These recollections are by core members of the Daybreak community who lived with Henri, persons who met him only once but who were transformed by the encounter, persons who worried about Henri's woundedness but also celebrated it as the source of his incredible sensitivity to the wounds of others. My favorite recollection is by Michael Arnett, the brother of Adam, Henri's companion at Daybreak. Michael says: "Sometimes I do sit on Adam's bench. Right by Daybreak pond. Think about Adam. Think about Henri." So do I. So do all of us whose lives were touched by Henri Nouwen. Thanks to the editors for reminding us of how much we owe him.
5 people found this helpfulReport abuse
