Intimacy

Intimacy, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, explores the following question: "How can I find a creative and fulfilling intimacy in my relationship with God and my fellow human beings?" Nouwen's answers to this question describe the connections among friendship, romantic love, sexuality, prayer, and mental health. The book's style is straightforward: "Each chapter is written because someone ... asked a question," Nouwen writes in the book's introduction. "I wrote not to solve a problem or to formulate a theory but to respond to men and women who wanted to share their struggles in trying to find their vocation in this chaotic world." Intimacy may be especially helpful for readers who serve in some ministerial capacity--the chapter on depression among seminarians, for instance, will be a cloud-clearing relief to many readers. However, Intimacy contains much helpful counsel for all Christian readers who are discovering their "seldom articulated and often unrecognized desire for a real home in this world." --Michael Joseph Gross