I first read this book 20 years ago and loved it taking pertinent principles for ministry relating to shared vulnerability, walking together in brokenness with one another and Jesus, being a healing community etc.
In returning to the book, I am struck by the dated language. It was really hard to get over the fact of the book being written to a male audience. I appreciated that Nouwen was aware of this dominance in his acknowledgements yet it grated me regularly as I read about creating an open and safe space for healing and fresh creativity whilst not being acknowledged as a having validity in my role as a female pastor.
Even the title of 'nuclear man' given to Peter, speaks a bygone era even if some of the cultural analysis continues to have resonance with the journey to today's world. A rewriting today would embrace a different reading of cultural indicators.
There are some very helpful conclusions presented in an accessible way. I would recommend it to all pastoral disciples but do wonder how younger generations would respond to the dated language.

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.

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...."

Powerful in its simplicity and rich with insight into the approaching of healing in Christian ministry from a position of woundedness - the woundedness we all share in the commonality of human suffering. I'll be reading this one again and again.

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.

This was a re-read for me after many years. I recently gave it to a friend of mine and then thought I should actually read it again to remember what it was all about. There are some things in here that are a bit dated in the first couple chapters as he talks about what the person of today looks like. This book was written in 1979. But I think that most things still ring true today. We all need compassion. We all need someone to dive into life with. We all need a hope beyond ourselves in Christ. The idea that hospitality is the way forward in healing is really important today. Providing a place for people to move into and out of as they need. A place where they can be attended to, not in a way that tries to fix them. But in a way that says we are journeying together. We can't fix each other's loneliness, nor should we. Nouwen says they loneliness is a precious gift. When we try to fix our own or others loneliness we just to rush and fill it which becomes it's own rat race. But that's not the point. When we provide hospitality we provide a space to be in in our loneliness and go into the depths of our emotions and this mysteriously leads to healing. We can't heal each other. We need to allow ourselves the spaces of hospitality to come to our human end in order to find the one who can heal. And one can only be hospitable in that space if we ourselves have allowed ourselves to come to that place and found our new center.

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.

Nouwen gives a beautiful articulation of the human struggles that are still as relevant today as they were when this was written in 1972. He then gives a hopeful picture of the ways ministers can walk with suffering people in the midst of suffering and let these things be the start of a hopeful walk with Christ as our true healer and liberator. A short, but wonderfully challenging book for any Christian leader and minister. Well worth your time and attention.

The first half of the book was a bit of a slog, but he hit his stride in the last two chapters and they are pure gold. Especially the chapter on the ministers call to be the wounded minister and a healing minister. The latter striking close to my heart as he talked about hospitality & concentration and hospitality & community. Highly recommend this one for any who are gifted and/or called to pastoral care and vocational ministry!

Read for my pastoral counseling class. Henri Nouwen is one of those classic Christian authors that I feel like every Christian should read in their lifetime. He has such a wonderful way of explaining theological concepts and ideas in a way that is both imminently readable and practical. I resonated with a lot of the themes and concepts in this book, and I can see myself returning to it over and over again as I continue on my path of ministry.

This novel is divided into four sections: 1) the condition of a suffering world, 2) the condition of a suffering generation, 3) the condition of a suffering man, and 4) the condition of a suffering minister. Each of these chapters gave me important nuggets of wisdom, even if I’m not entirely sure if I agree with some of his diagnoses. Others, however, are immediately relevant. In particular, I loved the chapters on the suffering man and the suffering minister. Since I have been involved with respite and hospice work, the depiction of the relationship between a young chaplain and an older gentleman dealing with his own fears of mortality was particularly relevant to me. I also thought the discussion about how our wounds might be precisely what helps us cultivate deeper connections with others timely and important.

This quote basically sums up the entire book:

"For the minister is called to recognize the sufferings of his time in his own heart and make that recognition the starting point of his service. Whenever he tries to enter into a dislocated world, relate to a convulsive generation, or speak to a dying man, his service will not be perceived as authentic unless it comes from a heart wounded by the suffering about which he speaks."

Nouwen spends the rest of the book exploring what it means to recognize the sufferings of the present time, including the suffering in our own hearts, so that we might bring about healing. I want to go back and reread this book, because I know I will get more out of it on a second and third readings. I will carry it with me throughout my ministry.

My only complaint about this novel is the use of “man” to signify “humanity,” or “people,” more generally. The masculinized language often made it difficult to connect with Nouwen’s points. However, I appreciated that Nouwen addresses this in the afterward and it should by no means stop anyone who is interested in this topic from picking this book up.

Still incredibly relevant to ministry today. Nouwen has a beautiful understanding of the human condition. He’s an absolute wizard with words.

The last two chapters are SO GOOD.

“None of us can help anyone without becoming involved, without entering with our 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. Thinking about martyrdom can be an escape unless we realize that martyrdom means a witness that starts with the willingness to cry with those who cry, laugh with those who laugh, and to make one’s own painful and joyful experiences available as sources of clarification and understanding.”