Rating: 
(New York: Doubleday, 1992)
151 pgs
Henri Nouwen was a Catholic priest and scholar who taught at Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School, and Harvard Divinity School. In 1983, while taking a leave of absence to minister in a home for mentally handicapped people in Trosly, France, he became aware of Rembrandt’s painting of the return of the prodigal son. So enraptured did he become with the painting that he travelled to St. Petersburg, Russia to view it in person. By the close of that year Nouwen decided to leave the Harvard faculty and to become the chaplain to the mentally handicapped at L’Arche Daybreak Community in Toronto, Canada.
This book chronicles Noewen’s spiritual pilgrimage as he studied and meditated upon Rembrandt’s masterpiece. This short book is divided into three sections. The first examines the younger son. The second looks at the elder son, and the final section examines the father. In each section, Nouwen describes how he came to see himself in each person.
I enjoyed this book. Nouwen is a Catholic philosopher and artist. He helped me look at a painting with perceptive eyes and imagination. I enjoyed hearing his ruminations on the work of art and his applications to Jesus’ famous parable. Of course much is speculative, as we cannot know with certainty what Rembrandt intended. However that is the beauty of art. We can have our own experience with art that is impactful to us, regardless of what the artist might have originally intended. While I did not agree with all of Nouwen’s conclusions, I was inspired by his many insightful comments. It made me want to be a better-informed student of art.
Nouwen looks at Rembrandt’s life and early artistic work and demonstrates that in his youth, he was a talented, proud, confident, worldly man with a desire to win fame and fortune. However, he experienced numerous heartaches both in the loss of loved ones and in bankruptcy. Rembrandt painted this work near the end of his life. At that point he painted himself as the prodigal son who has been humbled by life and finally made his way home to his father. Nouwen examines the reasons we leave the home of our loving Father in search of love and happiness from the world. He notes: “Soon after Jesus heard the voice calling him the Beloved, he was led to the desert to hear those other voices . . . Those same voices are not unfamiliar to me. They are always there and, always, they reach into those inner places where I question my own goodness and doubt my self-worth” (40). Finally, Nouwen notes, the prodigal son “hit the bedrock of his sonship” (49). Nouwen suggests that the Beatitudes provide the most direct rout back to the father (54).
He then looks to the elder son. He believes that Rembrandt also identified with him. He points out that the prodigal son is not pictured at the center of the painting. To one side is the elder son. Though Jesus makes it clear that he was not present when his younger brother returned home, Rembrandt inserts him into the painting. It becomes clear that there are two lost sons in that household. Rembrandt painted a light on the father’s face and hands and also on the elder brother’s face, but not his hands. It is clear that he is unhappy with the return and with his relationship with his father. Nouwen suggests that each person must make his way back to his father’s arms where love and joy can be experienced. The younger son was humiliated to a degree that he realized that was his only hope. The elder son remains on the sidelines, missing his father’s love. Nouwen comments: “The lostness of the resentful ‘saint’ is so hard to read precisely because it is so closely wedded to the desire to be good and virtuous” (71).
Nouwen began to realize that he was actually the older brother. He lived a respected, dutiful Christian life. But he began to ask: “Have I already had my reward?” (79). He confesses, “Outside of the light, my younger brother seems to be more loved by the Father than I; in fact, outside of the light, I cannot even see him as my own brother” (81).
Finally, Nouwen examines the father. He observes that Rembrandt painted two very different hands on the father. One is quite effeminate, caring, and caressing. The other is strong and firm. Nouwen speculates that Rembrandt represented the father as both maternal and paternal, just as God is described in both ways. He also describes the presence of the father as a place of joy. He notes that joy has been the mark of the people of God (117). He notes that, “The joy of the father is vastly different from the pleasure of the wayward son” (138).
Nouwen explains that he came to realize that God intends for him to move from being a son to behaving like his father. To welcome people with love and to bless them. He concludes by saying, “As I look at my own aging hands, I know that they have been given to me to stretch out toward all who suffer, to rest upon the shoulders of all who come, and to offer the blessing that emerges from the immensity of God’s love” (139). Nouwen would spend the remainder of his life blessing some of the humblest people in society.
I enjoyed this book. Perhaps because it is written in a different style and from a different perspective than I am accustomed. I found many of his insights to be thought-provoking. While I did not agree with everything he said, I did appreciate that he made me think. I also appreciate the way he exegetes a painting. He made me want to spend more time with the masterpieces left through the ages. I also enjoyed reflecting on one of Jesus’ most famous parables. I enjoy having someone take something that is so familiar and then shedding fresh light and insight on it that I had never considered before.
I recommend this book. It might not be the style you normally read, but you may well find it thought-provoking and refreshing. Certainly a fresh look at the beloved parable could do us all some good.
by Richard Blackaby