Item 1602 - Not without confrontation

1 p. of textual records

This item is a one page article by Henri Nouwen entitled, ‘Not Without Confrontation’, published in Sojourners, October 1977, Vol. 6, No. 10, p. 9. This is identified as the second in a series on compassion. Nouwen begins the article by stating that ‘compassion does not exclude confrontation’. Nouwen points to the prophets and to Jesus to make this point and suggests as an example that ‘we cannot suffer with the poor when we are not willing to confront those who cause poverty’. He goes on to state that the confrontation must be a humble one or in risks being self-righteous or self-serving. Nouwen then goes on to discuss the place of anger in confrontation and suggests that, for instance, anger is an appropriate response to injustice. Nouwen concludes the article by stating that ‘confrontation always includes self-confrontation. This self- confrontation prevents us from becoming alienated from the world which we must confront’.

Published in Sojourners 6, no. 10 (October 1977): 9.
Item is second of a series of eight articles on compassion.
Sojourners August 1977 journal is labelled no. 8 and September 1977 is also no. 10.
Original published article is found in Archives bound volumes: Sojourners, vol. 6, 1977.
See also offprint known as Articles on Compassion, from September 1977-April 1978, filed in Published Works - Articles Co-authored by Nouwen, box 300, file 1836.
This item is published in a revised form in: Nouwen, Henri J.M., McNeill, Donald P., Morrison, Douglas A., Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life, Image Books, Doubleday, New York, 1983.

Added by L Joson, 8 November 2017