A review by booksrockcal
The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming by Henri J.M. Nouwen

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book by Catholic priest Henri Nouwen combines art history, theology, textual analysis, cultural analysis, and psychology as applied to Jesus's parable, the Prodigal Son, from St. Luke's Gospel.  Nouwen explores the parable by considering it in the context of Rembrandt's painting the Prodigal Son, painted near the end of Rembrandt's life and on display in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.  Nouwen parses the text and uses formal analysis in describing the painting to show himself and all of us in each of the characters--the son returning from a life of profligacy to be greeted by a joyous father, the dutiful son jealous and fuming about his father's happiness and generosity in greeting the errant son, and the Father, whose love for both sons is apparent in the story and in the painting.  Nouwen ultimately focuses on the father and considers his own struggle to be like the father/mother loving both sons, requiring grief/compassion, forgiveness and generosity.  Nouwen interweaves his own story and struggles and Rembrandt's life and history with the parable and its lessons.  This is a highly readable book that combines textual analysis of the Bible story with formal analysis of the painting to teach timeless lessons. This is the first book I read by Henri NOuwen, about whom I have been curious since I used to pass him every day in the first semester of my sophomore year, riding his bicycle up Science Hill toward Yale Divinity School while I walked down from one of the few science courses I took during my years there. It will not be my last.