Encountering Henri: The Living Legacy of Henri Nouwen

Henri Nouwen, a Dutch-born priest, bestselling author, and one of the most beloved spiritual teachers of our time, died in September 1996. Thirty years later, his work and message—about prayer and ministry, community, the contemplative life, peacemaking, and our status as “God’s beloved”—continue to inspire and influence a new generation of seekers. His role as a spiritual guide was undiminished by the admission of his own struggles and anxieties. It was in our own brokenness, he taught, that we are called to intimacy with Jesus and solidarity with a wounded world.

This volume reflects Nouwen’s living legacy through the memories of friends and colleagues who worked and lived with him, as well as testimonies from many others who discovered and knew him only through his writings. These include his archivist and biographer, Gabrielle Earnshaw, who shares how her “apprenticeship” with Henri and his writings after his death unexpectedly changed the direction of her life. Then there is an ardent spiritual seeker from Guyana who explains how reading Henri’s books prompted him to pursue a contemplative life as a Trappist monk.


Contributors who knew Nouwen include Rev. John Dear, a peace activist; his editor Robert Ellsberg; Carolyn Whitney-Brown his neighbor at L’Arche Daybreak; Rodleigh Stevens, leader of a flying trapeze troupe, whose work fascinated Henri; Sr. Sue Mosteller, whom he named as his literary executrix; Michael Higgins, scholar and biographer; former students Michael O’Laughlin and Michael Christensen, who have edited his writings, and Rev. Don Postema.