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Rating:  - Very Academic
I'm reading this book with a group of friends, and we all were surprised at how "academic" this book is written. By "academic" I mean, this book seems to be written during Nouwen's days when he was still at Yale University. The wording and word choice of the sentences are much more collegiate than his later works, which he wrote after going to L'Arche in Toronto. The book is still great and speaks powerfully to things of the Spirit, but it is just a little bit more difficult to understand than say, a John Eldredge book.
Rating:  - Contrarian
I have hated this book ever since I first read it. It is incredibly light in any kind of real thought; it provides no original insights. It is practically barren of any Scriptural references. I frankly am astounded that any Christian finds anything to like about this book.
Rating: - The Fundamental Woundedness in Human Nature
"Creative service begins with the realization of fundamental woundedness in human nature. Emphasizing that which is in humanity common to both minister and believer, this woundedness can serve as a source of strength and healing when counseling others." from Edit. Rev.
The wounded review:
Writing this review was as hard as delivering baby Henri Nouwen, it coincided with global devastation due the atrocities taking place in the world, and in His holy mystical body. I am writing a recap on six reviews, each of which captured a side of the book and the psyche of its wounded author, beloved late Fr. Nouwen. Trained in Holland as a psychologist and a theologian, Nouwen spent his later years as a conference speaker. He taught at Yale, Harvard, and Notre Dame, writing more than one book a year, and travelling widely.
Wounded Healers:
St. Paul, the arch-wounded healer, told us about "a thorn was given me in the Flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me"
Fr. Nouwen's wound was in his psyche and masterfully does Philip Yancey describe it in his article, in Christianity today, 1966: "The Holy Inefficiency Of Henri Nouwen" in this story, "Richard Foster and Eugene Peterson mentioned an intense young man who had been seeking spiritual direction from both of them. They responded as best they could, answering questions by mail and recommending books on spirituality. Foster had just learned that the same inquirer had also contacted Henri Nouwen. "You won't believe what Nouwen did," he said. "He invited this stranger to live with him for a month so he could mentor him in person."
Doctor, Heal Thyself:
It seems this echoed in Henri's mind when at Cambridge, MA, he started writing the book. As Cry-the-Name (rev 6) rightly mentioned, Prof. Nouwen was in the Ivy ivory tower of Harvard, but he possibly referred to a real experience in: Ministry to a hopeless Man, while he served as a minister in or around Utrecht in his late twenties. Again the title may have been born in his own conscience in Topeka or South Bend, a psychology teacher could not have missed similarity of Franz Jung life to his own.
"He (Henri Nouwen) had a resume to die for which was the problem, exactly. The pressing schedule and relentless competition were suffocating his own spiritual life." Philip Yancey
Healers Wounds:
How all six reviewers observed the healer and his wounds from different prespectives, is evident in Michael Ford's Biography of Henri Nouwen, "Nouwen was a prophet to millions of people who heard him speak and read his books, but he also was wounded in so many ways. His life was one of paradox and pain. Nouwen, for example knew some 1,500 people he counted as personal friends, yet he constantly struggled with intense feelings of loneliness." He announced as a wounded healer: "The master is coming-not tomorrow, but today, not next year, but this year, not after all our misery is passed, but in the middle of it, not in another place but right here where we are standing"( Ministry by a lonely minister)
Nuclear Man's ways to liberation:
Both Nouwen and Merton have similar backgrounds; since both lived in post second World war Europe, got benchmark European education, amended with exposure to great American Academia; they are both Nuclear men, global believers, imitating Christ in different ways. According to J. Donders; they were invoked to their vocation in different ways, and encountered their spiritual adventure in kids like awe, both torn apart, but stayed whole. Their mind and milieu are alike although their wounds were categorically different.
Quotations For the Wounded:
"Christianity is not just challenged to ask itself to a modern age, but is also challenged to ask itself whether its unarticulated suppositions can still form the basis for its redemptive pretensions"( Nuclear Man)
"I am afraid that in a few decades, the Church will be accused of having failed in its most basic task: to offer men creative ways to communicate with the source of human life." (Ministry for a rootless generation)
"In this analysis it has became clear that Christian leadership is accomplished only through service" (ministry to a hopeless man)
Rating:  - This was a revelation ...
This is the first time I ventured outside the evangelical / protestant circles, and I was amazed at the simplicity with which this author was able to present some pretty deep material.
The part that spoke to me the most was 'if we can live our lives as authentically as Jesus lived his, then there are many ways to live like Christ'. This was a revelation, I no longer have to stand a street corners, etc. to live like Christ.
The good author is gone now, but his many books are available for us all. A very good alternative the usual a,b,c ... 1,2,3 stuff I was used to.
Rating: - Confronting the 'Essentials' of Ministry
As a young person seeking meaning in a difficult world, I have found Nouwen's work (every book I've read of his, actually) to clearly confront the ills of society, incorporating them into authentic Christian discipleship.
Every priest, minister, layperson or questioning individual should pick up this brief - yet poignant - account of what it is to relate to others in the modern world. Nouwen consistently cultivates the meaning of authentic relationships one must have between him/herself, God, and those met in life.
This is a must-read.
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