Home Tonight:  Further Reflections On The Parable Of The Prodigal Son, by Henri J.M. Nouwen

It is an unfortunate truth that after an author is dead, especially an author who wrote a lot and whose work is considered notable and important in some fashion, that books will tend to proliferate out of the scraps of material that were never fully completed during their lifetime [1].  If we did not know that this book had been posthumously collected from the somewhat disorganized notes for a seminar presentation that Nouwen had given on his previously published, and excellent, thoughts on the Parable of the Prodigal Sons [2], then this is precisely the sort of book that would be widely condemned as an unnecessary sequel.  Since the author himself did not appear to intend his thoughts to be turned into a book, but that those thoughts were considered worthy of sharing by others after his death, we may appreciate this book and its somewhat haphazard nature and the fact that it does not rise to the sublime heights of the author’s best work and recognize the nature of the origins of the book as an explanation for these matters.

In a similar fashion to the author’s original book on the return of the prodigal son, this book is organized around the three roles present in the parable:  the rebellious son, the resentful son, and the loving father.  Each of these parts of the book has three chapters:  the chapter on the younger, rebellious son discusses the author’s own trip from loneliness to L’arche, the younger son, and a discussion of the second loneliness experienced by Nouwen after about a year at L’arche.  The second part of the book discusses the elder son, the hidden exile of resentment, and a reflection on the homecoming to gratitude.  The third section, on the father, discusses the primal relationship, touch and blessing, and unconventional love.  Although a great deal of the material here is a rehashing and recasting of his previously written material, this particular book is much lighter on the art history and much heavier on personal discussion of the author’s struggle with resentment and depression, and the unrealistic expectation that fallen and broken human beings could love us as God loves us and how we know we ought to be loved.

Despite the book’s nature, there is much that can be appreciated about it.  The author’s honesty about his own family and its weaknesses is a reminder to many readers that our development requires a renunciation of vengeance and bitterness and resentment over the hand we have been given in life and our treatment by other people.  Paradoxically, in order to love others as we ought to, we have to let go of our desire to be loved by them as we wish, and accept others for who they are, with all of their brokenness and complexity and sinful and fallen human nature.  Each chapter of this book is filled with useful quotes from sources the author would have appreciated, including a few from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, while also containing notes for the reader to aid in listening, journaling, and communing.  The goal of the author, and one that is passionately realized in this work, is an encouragement to the reader to engage in heart to heart with God and with other people.  It is in being candid about his own brokenness and his own vulnerabilities and his own neediness and struggles that the author became a good example to others in how to best love others as God loves us to the best of our modest and imperfect abilities.  Although not as excellent as the author’s original book, this is a worthwhile and encouraging book nonetheless, and it is easy to see why Nouwen’s somewhat disorganized notes were distilled and organized into this book for others to read.  Not all authors get to shape their canon as well as they would have liked, after all.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/06/08/book-review-henri-nouwen-a-book-of-hours/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/06/08/book-review-turn-my-mourning-into-dancing/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/book-review-the-worlds-last-night-and-other-essays/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/book-review-god-in-the-dock/

[2] See:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/05/27/book-review-the-return-of-the-prodigal-son/