...Nouwen 4-MAT Book Review 1 Nouwen 4-MAT Book Review Quinton Neighbors Liberty University Nouwen 4-MAT Book Review 2 Summary Reaching Out The Three Movements of The Spiritual Life by Henri Nouwen, published on November 20, 2013. The author lays out three dimensions of spiritual movements in the Christian life. Each one proceeding from the previous one to make a simple but profound process for the reader to understand. Explained first as the spectrum of loneliness to solitude. Next, hostility to hospitality, and finally illusion to prayer. The needs of loneliness manifest its in the quest for messianic completeness in other things to fill the void. This has many implications as violence, resentment, and other reactions to having such flawed idols are being used to fill the gap. On the other hand, the author presents Christ as the point of wholeness that we as humans long for. Our innermost selves are filled by this to become receptive to inner talk, the world and others. The immovable wholeness in Christ is the axiom in which the heart solitude provides loving faith filled responses. Going further into solitude is an process of inner stability in Christ, that plants seeds of hospitality instead of the natural hostility our world has created. Hospitality is defined as a biblical term of open freedom of space so that strangers can be invited as friends. Balanced in heart solitude and freedom from attachment to things either material or immaterial makes the space for a good host...
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...4 MAT Review - Nouwen Liberty University Author: Henri J. M. Nouwen Publisher: Image Summary In his book, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, Nouwen (1975) challenges the reader to move from spiritual dryness to spiritual vitality. He first discusses the movement from loneliness to solitude. Our fear of loneliness drives us to an unending quest of activities, education, and entertainment. Our quest generally does not lead us out of our loneliness, but rather distracts us so as to pretend that loneliness does not have any impact on us. Nouwen encourages us to stop running from our loneliness and actually embrace it. In so doing, the reader can expect to find a solitude that can only achieved through a still, quiet appreciation of ourselves. The second attribute of the spiritual life presented is the movement from hostility to hospitality. A common theme discussed in this movement is the need to realize the host’s lack of ownership of the stranger or guest. The call to servitude is instead embodies the concept of hospitality. According to Nouwen, hospitality also requires the host to create a safe, receptive environment that promotes growth of the individual within the context of safe boundaries, not as a form or restriction, but one of guidance. We are reminded of the interdependence of solidarity and hospitality as Nouwen indicates “as long as we are lonely, we cannot be hospitable because as lonely people we cannot create free space” (p....
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...___________________________ LIVING HISTORY Hillary Rodham Clinton Simon & Schuster New York • London • Toronto • Sydney • Singapore To my parents, my husband, my daughter and all the good souls around the world whose inspiration, prayers, support and love blessed my heart and sustained me in the years of living history. AUTHOR’S NOTE In 1959, I wrote my autobiography for an assignment in sixth grade. In twenty-nine pages, most half-filled with earnest scrawl, I described my parents, brothers, pets, house, hobbies, school, sports and plans for the future. Forty-two years later, I began writing another memoir, this one about the eight years I spent in the White House living history with Bill Clinton. I quickly realized that I couldn’t explain my life as First Lady without going back to the beginning―how I became the woman I was that first day I walked into the White House on January 20, 1993, to take on a new role and experiences that would test and transform me in unexpected ways. By the time I crossed the threshold of the White House, I had been shaped by my family upbringing, education, religious faith and all that I had learned before―as the daughter of a staunch conservative father and a more liberal mother, a student activist, an advocate for children, a lawyer, Bill’s wife and Chelsea’s mom. For each chapter, there were more ideas I wanted to discuss than space allowed; more people to include than could be named; more places visited than could be described...
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