Customer Reviews

The Way of the Heart: Desert Spirituality and Contemporary Ministry

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When Nouwen is hot, he is hot, and in this book he is hot. Nouwen copies from John of the Cross when he insists that the value of a contemplative life is character transformation.

His first section on solitude is right on. Too many of our church leaders are so action oriented they shy away from solitude. The resulting religion is as cold and pragmatic as any profit driven corporation. Your pastor needs to read this chapter.

Nouwen's second section on silence picks up where the discussion on solitude ends, and goes a bit deeper. Here, he offers a call for measured speech. All speech must have purpose and come from a quiet center. This is a good section for any person who wishes to grow deeper in the Christian faith. However, those who are too quick to act or ADD to accept it may lay the book aside about this time.

The final section deals with hesychasm. Nouwen describes this as prayer of the heart (entire being) as opposed to usual prayer of the mind. Prayer of the mind usually asks things of God, or tries to understand God. These ways of praying are not bad, but limited. Nouwen opts for a style of prayer that offers constant communion with God.

However, it is as this point that I feel the book breaks down. Nouwen does a good job of stating the need for such prayer, and refers to it with illustrations and theology, but he doesn't quite teach the reader how to go about practicing this form of inner prayer.

Someone well versed in contemplative prayer may feel affirmed by this book and get a lot out of it.

Someone who wishes to break the yoke of busy, busy Christianity will find a seductive light of hope within the pages of these books.

But the novice who wishes to dig deep, must use the book as a springboard to other readings. Fortunately there are many other good sources out there to continue feasting upon.

This book is what one comes to expect from Henri Nouwen: simple, winsome, deep, and compassionate. I serve as a pastor and find his comments still contemporary, though they are the product of Nouwen's contemplation of twenty years ago.
Nouwen borrows not only the content, but the habit of desert wisdom in providing commentary that is brief and compelling. His invitation to follow in the practice of Abba Arsenius by embracing three movements (to flee, to keep silence, and to pray) is simply organized and powerfully presented.
Nouwen's description of the 'compulsive minister' is accurate in every detail and served to draw me into the lessons as if this book were written for me in particular.
"The Way of the Heart" is directed at those who are engaged in the practice of ministry - but it's lessons are easily applied to life outside the practice of ministry. I heartily recommend it to one and all.

Henri Nouwen's "The Way of the Heart" is a mystic's diagnosis and prescription for an over-busied modernity. Though the application is universal, it seems that one of his primary targets are the clergy, whose m.o. has become too much like that of their secular counterparts in the business world.

The book, like much of Nouwen's work, could easily be said to be a collection of short essays collected into a book (albeit a short 75 pages). It is unified by its deference to the Desert Fathers, the early monks who escaped the busy-ness of their own age with a lifestyle of retreat. The three major subsections are: solitude, silence, and prayer. Solitude is the withdrawal from the secularly-driven lifestyle of activity. Silence is the intentional reevaluation of whether or not our words are intentional and necessary. Prayer is to be an incessant activity no matter what our tasks for the day.

Nouwen does a tremendous job on three levels. He accurately assesses the contemporary milieu, then develops a spiritual remedy for it, and finally makes pragmatic application fro modern readers. This book is a must-read and an easy read. Ver refreshing.

Short, simple, easy to read in the typical Nouwen fashion, and yet when you are finished, you can not help but feel refreshed, energized, and re-awakened to that "tiny whispering sound" referred to in 1 Kings 19:12. This is an excellent book about the heart of prayer: standing silent in the presence of God. There is a lot of noise out there, and this book shows how to leave the noise outside, how to instill the silence of presence to God in your soul, and how to carry that out to the marketplace, where the message of the Gospel so needs to be heard.

In this book Henri Nouwen takes us through three often-neglected disciplines in our noisy, busy, fast-paced culture. He not only encourages us to take some time to turn from the noise to silence, from the busyness to solitude, and from running fast to slowing down to pray; but he shows us how.

When it comes to solitude, Henri defines it beautifully: "Solitude is the place of purification and transformation, the place of the great struggle and the great encounter..." He talks about how this is a time when we stand alone before a holy God, bare-naked. That is the struggle, to come to God honestly. To encounter this wholly other God who is wholly other in his holiness, grace and love. And as we accept his love and grace, we can boldly come before him and stand in his presence naked and unashamed.

Then he goes on to talk about silence. "First, silence makes us pilgrims. Secondly, silence guards the fire within. Thirdly, silence teaches us to speak." We live in a world of words and silence enables us to hear the voice of God, so that we can breath life into those around us by our careful choice of words. He talks about how as ministers we can give time for silence in our counseling, bringing people to Jesus, waiting for the Spirit's direction.

And when it come to prayer, Henri says, "The prayer of the heart opens the eyes of the soul to the truth of ourselves as well as to the truth of God. The prayer of the heart challenges us to hide absolutely nothing."

We all need help in developing these three disciplines: silence, solitude and prayer in our noisy, busy and fast-paced society. Henri reminds us of the importance of these disciplines and gives us some practical help in how to live them out in real life.

This book was recommended prior to a spiritual growth retreat. All retreat members read the book and were very pleased with the information. It is easy to get caught up in the noise and confusion of the world forgetting how important and valuable solitude and silence are to a relationship with God. In those quiet times come rich growth. This was a great reminder.

Nouwen hits the core of the Desert movement by reducing the Desert's call and emphasis to the foundation of Solitude, Silence, and Prayer. Nouwen's clear yet piercing style hits the reader in the heart, precisely how the early Desert Fathers were hit, and challenges us to withdraw from our highly constructed world, into a world of simplicity and intimacy with Christ Jesus.

The most helpful insight to me is the exposure and attack against the "false self." Nouwen, quoting several Desert writers, explains that solitude and silence removes a person's "audience," and thus his temptation to act, perform, compete, and basically "show-off." Another helpful insight is the way Nouwen explains that the Desert monks were not running way from ministry but rather running into God. It was only then could the character and wisdom of God be evidenced by such Desert Fathers as Anthony.

This little book is great for all audiences but perhaps it is especially helpful to pastors, preachers, and ministers who are serving "in their own strength." They are the primary targets of the call to solitude, silence and prayer. Yet they probably suffer more for a lack of all three.

Paraphrasing the late M. Scott Peck, contemplation is not highly valued in our society. And I agree that we need to be able to come apart and quiet ourselves before God. As a somewhat talkative person, I am particularly interested in the discipline of silence.

But I'm afraid I wasn't pleased with the way the author handled the subject.

First of all, he questions the "sharing" aspect in our contemporary life-style. While I don't believe we need to share everything we think, I can also say that many times I have been greatly helped by someone who has "shared" his or her experience and/or insight with me. And I have helped people as well. If the author wants to make a point of being silent, that's fine. I'm still open to learning more about it -- but not at the expense of a good thing -- namely, sharing when it's appropriate. We need to remember that the book of Proverbs mentions many things about the power of well-spoken words. At the risk of using a big-time cliche, let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I was also disappoined when on page 55 he used an example of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh's artistic ability notwithstanding, his personal life at times bordered on insanity. His personal turmoil is a matter of public knowledge.

Not everyone is called to a life of monastic contemplation (two words which are not one and the same, by the way). And as for ascetic practices -- well, we need to remember something about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is true that during his time on earth, He would retire to quiet places to pray. But Jesus Christ did not practice an ascetic life.

I hope to find a treatment of silence that's more positive.

I enjoyed the perspective of being oversturated with words in our society. We are bombarded by advertising and have become numb to the spoken word. The highlight of the book is " Through spending time in the silent presence of the Lord that gives strenghth to our words"

The Way of the Heart is Henri Nouwen's classic work on the Desert Fathers. The late Nouwen was an influential Catholic priest who left his post to care for a bed-ridden man who would never speak, eat, or walk.

In this book, Nouwen draws upon the wisdom of early monastic Christians. From their writings and lives, he illuminates three essential pillars of their faith--solitude, silence, and prayer.

This is a short work, less than one hundred pages, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. Nouwen is able to interweave our modern world with that of the Desert Fathers, making their isolated ways seem possible in our busy world.

This is a great book to take for a weekend camping trip or a just a quiet day at home. It's a good book for reflection and takes some time to soak in.