The Return of the Prodigal Son
A Story of Homecoming
With over a million copies sold, this classic work is essential reading for all who ask, “Where has my struggle led me?”
A chance encounter with a reproduction of Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son catapulted Henri Nouwen on an unforgettable spiritual adventure. Here he shares the deeply personal and resonant meditation that led him to discover the place within where God has chosen to dwell.
The themes of homecoming, affirmation, and reconciliation will be newly discovered by all who have known loneliness, dejection, jealousy, or anger. The challenge to love as God loves, and to be loved as God’s beloved, will be seen as the ultimate revelation of the parable known to Christians throughout time, and is here represented with a vigor and power fresh for our times.
Translations available include:
Spanish – El regreso del hijo pródigo
Polish – Powrót syna marnotrawnego
Also found on The Polish Bookstore
Chinese
Czech – Návrat ztraceného syna
Hungarian – A tékozló fiú hazatérése
Croatian – Povratak izgubljenog sina
Download free discussion guide
More About this Book
A Nouwen classic. This is Nouwen’s best-selling book!
Exhausted from a six-week lecture tour across the U.S. in 1983, Nouwen seeks rest in the L’Arche community in France. During his stay, a painting of Rembrandt catches his attention: The Return of the Prodigal Son. Sustained reflection on the painting slowly emerges into awareness of a new vocation coming to flower in his heart, his own personal call to “come home,” to make his home with L’Arche. Identifying with each of the three main figures in the painting, Nouwen crafts a fresh interpretation of a classic story, concluding: “Though I am both the younger son and the elder son, I am not to remain them, but called to become the Father.” Ultimately, it expresses all Nouwen wanted to say about love.
Themes: God, Identity, Spiritual Life, Vocation, L’Arche Trosly-Breuil, L’Arche Daybreak, Rembrandt, Home, Homecoming, First Love/2nd Love, Love, Art, Surrender, Innermost self, Receiving love, Emotional crises, Spiritual maturity, Aging, Seeing/Looking/Vision, Compassion, Being the Beloved, Addictions, Being Lost, Loneliness, Inner Freedom, Forgiveness, Repentance, New childhood, New innocence, Joy, Jesus, Spiritual reconciliation, Conversion, Resentment, Complaints, Self-rejection, Mercy, Choices, Reborn from above, Trust, discipline of Gratitude, Jesus as model, Fatherhood, Unconditional Love, Maternal Love, Self-concept, Celebration, Competition, Power, Control, Grief, Generosity, Dreadful emptiness, Handicapped people, Suffering, Community, Blessing, Hands
Random House, 1992
"Without question, this book is among the GREATEST TREASURES in my library." -Fergus
"Amazing, astounding, surprising, bewildering, stunning, staggering, mind-blowing, this are only few adjectives that can be used to describe this life changing book!" -Jerome
"Father Nouwen's book forever changed me and the way I understood this parable of forgiveness, love and our relationship with God, the Father." -Booklady