Subseries 1 - Course lectures, handouts, reading, and student notes

217 cm of textual records.- 357 photographs : col. negatives ; 35 mm (mounted). - 14 audio cassettes (21 hours, 40 min.)

Nouwen developed a regular practice of having his lecture notes and class handouts bound at the end of each course, which were in turn deposited at the Yale Divinity School Library and the library at the Abbey of the Genesee. In addition to materials relating to specific courses, in the mid 1970s Nouwen had two volumes of collected articles and handouts bound, including a number of original transcripts of his work . A significant portion of his later academic materials were not deposited at Yale, or were never fully described by the library. As such, there are a number of documents that most likely would have been discarded in the process of assessment, but have been retained to give the researcher a sense of how Nouwen developed his lectures and distributed typed lecture summaries and handouts to his students.

Sub-series consists of bound volumes of materials and loose documents created and used by Nouwen for his teaching positions various academic institutions in both North America and Europe. This includes reading notes, preparation notes, lecture notes, typed lecture summaries, course handouts and syllabi, many of which are heavily annotated by Nouwen. It also includes lectures, letters, notes, assignments and course evaluations produced by Nouwen's students and teaching assistants. In addition to the course-specific bound volumes, there are two bound volumes that are labelled as "miscellaneous class material" that relate to Nouwen's early career from 1959 to 1976. This sub-series has been divided into 22 sub-sub series based on the course titles and subjects which Nouwen taught between 1961 and 1994, except for one sub-sub series involving the two-volume set of collected class materials mentioned above.
The sub-sub series are:

1. Developmental Psychology
2. Psychology of Personality
3. Abnormal Psychology
4. Psychology of Religion
5. Pastoral Care
6. Christian Spirituality
7. Ministry to the Elderly
8. Hospitality
9. Discipline and Discipleship
10. Prison Ministry
11. Collected Class Materials
12. The Life and Works of Thomas Merton
13. Ministry and Spirituality
14. Ministry in Non-Religious Institutions
15. The Ministry of Vincent Van Gogh
16. Compassion
17. Education and Community
18. Hesychasm
19. Desert Spirituality and Contemporary Ministry
20. Spiritual Direction / Spiritual Life and Spiritual Direction
21. Introduction to the Spiritual Life
22. Early Dutch course material

All student materials (counseling notes, evaluations, grading, assignments) are restricted.

Title based on contents of the sub-series.
In practice, bound volumes of handouts (articles, photocopies, newspaper clippings) were dated according to when they were bound, rather than when the material was first created. Bound volumes of lecture notes or lecture summaries as well as reading notes tended to be dated according to when they were first created, as the content of these documents is more relevant.

Revised by L Joson, 9 November 2018