Henri J.M. Nouwen

The Return of the Prodigal Son

Henri J. M. Nouwen's The Return of the Prodigal Son is not primarily a book about a wayward son who comes home. It is a book about you — and about whether you are willing to let God be the father who runs to meet you. It began with a moment Nouwen could not shake: standing before a poster reproduction of Rembrandt's painting of the same name, he felt something in the image reaching into him. That encounter sent him on a pilgrimage — first to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to sit with the original canvas for hours, and then deep into his own history of restlessness, achievement, loneliness, and longing. What he found there became this book: a sustained meditation on Luke 15 that moves through three figures in the parable — the younger son, the elder son, and the father — arguing that every person must ultimately make the journey from being a lost child to becoming a mature, compassionate father or mother in the household of God.