Lifesigns

Lifesigns: Intimacy, Fecundity, and Ecstasy in Christian Perspective (Doubleday, 1986) was written as Henri Nouwen was leaving academic life for L'Arche. It contrasts two dwellings, the house of fear, in which so much of modern life is lived, and the house of love, to which Jesus invites his friends, drawing on the image of God's dwelling in John's Gospel. He then describes three signs of life lived in the house of love: intimacy, fecundity (fruitfulness rather than productivity), and ecstasy (joy that moves beyond the self). His experience with people with disabilities at L'Arche shapes the book. It was published in Britain as In the House of the Lord.