The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom / Henri J. M. Nouwen / Doubleday 1999 / Paperback

ISBN-13: 9780385483483 / 978-0385483483

Printed in the USA 

Pages 144

"One of the world's great spiritual writers." -Christianity Today

This book was published in 1996 just before Nouwen’s sudden death,but was written between December 1987 and June 1988. It consists of sixty-two “spiritual imperatives” that Nouwen wrote to himself during a time of deep depression.  Nouwen called it “his secret journal” because the imperatives were written solely for himself.  But his friends, particularly Wendy Greer encouraged him to share them with a wider readership.

This is Henri Nouwen's "secret journal." It was written during the most difficult period of his life, when he suddenly lost his self-esteem, his energy to live and work, his sense of being loved, even his hope in God. Although he experienced excruciating anguish and despair, he was still able to keep a journal in which he wrote a spiritual imperative to himself each day that emerged from his conversations with friends and supporters.

For more than eight years, Henri Nouwen felt that what he wrote was too raw and private to share with others. Instead, he published The Return of the Prodigal Son, in which he expressed some of the insights gained during his mental and spiritual crisis. But then friends asked him, "Why keep your anguish hidden from the many people who have been nurtured by your writing? Wouldn't it be of consolation for many to know about the fierce inner battle that lies underneath so many of your spiritual insights?"

For the countless men and women who have to live through the pain of broken relationships, or who suffer from the loss of a loved one, this book about the inner voice of love offers new courage, new hope, even new life.

• Release: 1/18/1999
• SKU: 9780385483483
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• Page Count: 144
• Physical Information: 0.50" H x 8.20" L x 5.40" W (0.34 lbs)
• Subject: Christian Living - Inspirational, Inspirational