Broken wholeness: A critical analysis of Henri JM Nouwen’s spirituality of vulnerability and its possible value for the current discourse on health and wholeness.

Riaan Van Der Merwe

doi:10.17570/stj.2016.v2n2.a26

Abstract

This essay investigates whether the counter-cultural spiritual formation theology of Henri Nouwen could make a significant contribution to the current discourse on an inclusive, gender-equitable, spirituality-based approach to holistic health. Three main relationships feature in the majority of Nouwen’s works: the relationship to self, the relationship to others and the relationship to God. This foundational framework of Nouwen is used to structure this inquiry into the possible enduring value of certain core concepts that Nouwen developed within his triad of ‘movements’ toward wholeness. In his thinking about the movement of Reaching Out to our Fellow Human Beings, the concept of Vulnerability emerges as a key component of his theology and it will be the focus of this article. In a second article the value of Nouwen’s seminal thinking on Embodiment (the movement of Reaching Out to our Innermost Self) and in a third his lifelong engagement with Mystery (the movement of Reaching Out to our God) will also be brought into discussion with current thinking.

Highlights

The emerging intellectual paradigm shift in the discourse on healing and wholenessHenri J
This essay investigates whether the counter-cultural spiritual formation theology of Henri Nouwen could make a significant contribution to the current discourse on an inclusive, gender-equitable, spirituality-based approach to holistic health
Three main relationships feature in the majority of Nouwen’s works: the relationship to self, the relationship to others and the relationship to God. This foundational framework of Nouwen is used to structure this inquiry into the possible enduring value of certain core concepts that Nouwen developed within his triad of ‘movements’ toward wholeness. In his thinking about the movement of Reaching Out to our Fellow Human Beings, the concept of Vulnerability emerges as a key component of his theology and it will be the focus of this article

Summary

Introduction

The emerging intellectual paradigm shift in the discourse on healing and wholeness. Henri J. This article hopes to investigate the current relevance of one of the rich spiritual veins that Henri Nouwen tapped into that is increasingly emerging as part of a new way of thinking about health and wholeness. Richard Rohr, in his foreword to Wil Hernandez’s third book in a trilogy on the legacy of Henri Nouwen, affirms that Nouwen’s life, spirituality and theology have enduring relevance for us today as “an excellent seer, inviting us into the same seeing” (Hernandez 2012: Kindle location 106). From amongst the various movements colourfully described by Nouwen in a number of his books, this study identifies three as representative of his spiritual formation theory and which may be significant for today’s circumstances.7 They have been synthesized from various sources and renamed for the current context in a style that Henri Nouwen might possibly have employed today. Embodiment and mysticism, representing the “inward” and “upward” movements will be considered in further articles

Nouwen’s theology of weakness

The fragile discourse on vulnerability