World-Renowned Spiritual Guide and Counselor Henri Nouwen Reveals the Five Classical Stages of Spiritual Development in 'Spiritual Formation'

(PRWEB) June 28, 2010 -- Henri Nouwen understood the spiritual life as a journey of faith and transformation that is deepened by accountability, community, and relationships. Though he counseled many people during his lifetime, his principles of spiritual formation were never written down. Now, in SPIRITUAL FORMATION: Following the Movements of the Spirit (http://harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061686122) (July 2010; HarperOne), Michael Christensen, one of Nouwen’s longtime students, and Rebecca Laird take his famous course in spiritual formation and supplement it with his unpublished writings to create the definitive series on Nouwen’s thoughts on the Christian life.

The first book in the series, SPIRITUAL DIRECTION, introduced readers to Nouwen’s core concepts and how to live the questions of the spiritual life. Now SPIRITUAL FORMATION (http://harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061686122) reveals Nouwen’s sage advice on how to live out the five classical stages of spiritual development:

• Awakening (our desire)

• Purgation (purifying our passions)

• Illumination (of God)

• Dark Night (of the Soul)

• Unification (with God)

Featuring a unique visio divina to help guide and focus prayer, this volume reveals Nouwen’s unparalleled wisdom on how to move from the mind to the heart and live there in the center—the place where God dwells.

Henri J. M. Nouwen (1932-1996) is the author of Reaching Out, The Wounded Healer, Making All Things New, and many other spiritual classics. He taught psychology and pastoral theology at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard universities before becoming senior pastor of L’Arche Daybreak in Toronto, Canada, a community where men and women with intellectual disabilities and their assistants create a home for one another. To learn more, visit www.henrinouwen.org.

Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D., is national director of Communities of Shalom at Drew University, where he teaches spirituality and practical theology. He studied with Henri Nouwen at Yale Divinity School.

Rebecca Laird, M.A., D. MIN., is director of ministerial formation at Drew University, where she teaches spiritual formation and Christian ministry.

SPIRITUAL FORMATION: Following the Movements of the Spirit

Henri Nouwen

HarperOne, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

On-sale June 29

Hardcover | $25.99 | ISBN: 9780061686122

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This press release has been reprinted from PRWEB per the terms and conditions of the copyright notice.

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