My favourite book of Nouwen's I have read to date. I can't believe he wrote this before 1972. Much of it reads as though it was written within the last 10 years. He is extremely insightful on his description of what the future "leader" needs to look like. I found myself saying "Yes! Yes! Yes!" Not only that but I was surprised as I continued to reflect on the implications fo his view on the future leader. It dawned on me that much of what he was saying was a description of how I would explain or define myself as a leader. Scary! Nouwen has inspired me to embrace the model of "leader" that he describes and embrace the ways that I fulfill this description. He has inspired me... actually more accurately he has compelled me to write (see page 37). And so I must write...

This powerfully written, yet simple book changed my life! In "The Wounded Healer," Nouwen addresses one of the main challenges of the human condition- our weaknesses. These wounds, as Nouwen refers to them, are so often viewed as sources of shame and guilt for us. He reminds us all, however, that these wounds, can be transformed into strengths, if we will allow them to be.

By accepting that we are human and addressing our human weaknesses, we can then turn them into helpful resources to extend the gift of emotional healing to others. Because, in order to reach people, we need a point of connection. We can all relate to experiences of emotional woundedness, and within appropriate relational boundaries, they can become instruments of healing.

Nouwen shares several stories, and conversations that he had with persons going through various experiences of emotional woundedness. One of the most poignant of these was a visit he made to a man who was about to go in for surgery to have a leg amputated. By offering himself as a compassionate listener, he was able to help the man find peace in the midst of a devastating loss.

A point of clarification that Nouwen makes well is that becoming a wounded healer does not mean that we dump all of our problems on people, or seek to wear them like badges. Instead, by being aware of our woundedness, and facing it, we can become more sensitized to the needs of the people around us- after all we are all subject to human imperfection.

If you are ready to find hope and a renewed perspective on helping others- read this book! I would highly recommend "The Wounded Healer" to all persons in caring professions, as well as anyone who just want to find peace in the midst of human challenges. ( )

In light of all the works produced and being produced on "post-modernism" and especially on doing ministry in a post-modern age, Nouwen's allows one to see the first thoughts and glimmers of the post-modern mentality. In truth, Nouwen's description of the nuclear man is a description of the emerging post-modern generation.

The first three chapters of this treatise provided interesting insights into the complexities and dilemmas facing ministers in the emerging post-modern mileau. However, it is the last chapter on Ministry by a Lonely Ministry in which Nouwen describes the role of the "wounded healer" that gives this book it's enduring value. The description of the "wounded healer" provides the reader (especially those engaged in ministry) a paradigm for understanding their role and it's power in the lives of others. What is more, in my estimation, the wounded healer provides a model for ministry that transcends the age of postmodern man and is applicable in every age. ( )

Thoughtful and insightful. ( )

In this analysis of Christian pastoral care Nouwen takes a look at ministry in the modern context from four different perspectives. He begins with the dislocations of modern people in the nuclear age. Some of this analysis feels a little dated as some of the developments of post-modernism are missing, but in general it is insightful. He moves on to the feeling of rootlessness in the current generations. Here he finds an inward looking, fatherless, convulsive people. Focussing in closer, we find the individual, lacking hope in both life and death. Having described the situation in the world from the first three perspectives, the final one looks upon the person who can minister authentically into this situation. Neuwen argues that it is only the person who lives from the reality of woundedness and loneliness who can credibly reach those who are wounded and lonely.

Obviously coming from a deep and prayerful pastoral heart, this is compelling stuff. I'm not sure that it is balanced in the reality of the healing power of God, and parts of it seem to me to make a virtue of woundedness, in a way with which I am not completely comfortable. ( )