not too much

Thanks to a link on Bending the rule, I've just seen a review of Wounded prophet: a portrait of Henri J M Nouwen, by Michael Ford (London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1999)

BBC producer Michael Ford met Nouwen while interviewing him for a TV program and later took a leave of absence to write this book. Ford says it is not intended as a full-scale biography. Nevertheless, he succeeds brilliantly in shedding light on Nouwen's inner life, particularly his angst regarding his homosexuality.

I had not the least idea that Nouwen was gay. The book of his that I first read was Reaching out, which I bought in Scotland shortly after it was first published in 1975. Nouwen described this book as "closer to me than anything I have written" that "tries to articulate my most personal thought and feelings about being a Christian." He talks about three movements: from Loneliness to Solitude, from Hostility to Hospitality, and from Illusion to Prayer.

. . . Ford is at his best when he probes Nouwen's emotional turmoil and describes his consuming need for affection, intimacy, and friendship. Nouwen wanted to be the center of attention. He had a network of friends around the world and often called them in the middle of the night to talk about his loneliness. He yearned for intimacy, but felt constrained by his commitment to the celibate priesthood.

Nouwen frequently expressed his need to be physically held. Once, after he gave a speech, an obviously distraught Nouwen returned home and asked one of his friends to simply hold him. "He just clung to me fiercely, and I hugged him tight in return," the friend recalled.

. . . Ford says it is impossible to "understand the complexity and anguish of the man" without considering his homosexual orientation, something he was aware of from the time he was a boy, but started to come to grips with only in his final years.

At Menninger, he wrestled with his homosexual leanings, which he regarded as a disability, a cross to bear. While Nouwen was at Harvard, he was hard on gay students, telling them that homosexuality was an evil state of being. In time, he became friends with many homosexuals and was under increasing pressure to go public. Other friends, however, advised him to keep his secret, saying he would lose all credibility as a famous Catholic writer if people knew he was gay.

Before he died in 1996, Nouwen was becoming more vocal in his support of gay men and women, saying they had a "unique vocation in the Christian community." Ford speculates that had Nouwen lived, his next major book might have been a study of homosexuality. Nouwen was troubled by the possibility that people would reject him if they knew about his sexual orientation. "This took an enormous emotional, spiritual and physical toll on his life and may have contributed to his early death," Ford says. There is no indication in the book that Nouwen was anything but celibate.

Other writers generally have avoided the question of Nouwen's sexual orientation. To his credit, Ford has given us a fuller picture of Nouwen and demonstrated the depth of Nouwen's anguish about his sexuality and issues of intimacy in general.

Yet another book I think I should read!

It is a touching book. Ford also has a biography of Fr. Mychal Judge, so I hear, although I have not read it.
Damien Scott () (URL) - 13 08 05 - 02:57