Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471)

When I bought this book - which was sold to me half-price - it had been on the shelves of a bookshop in Ambleside, overlooking Lake Windermere, for at least a decade: the book-seller, who had ordered it for a customer who had failed to buy the thing, from a publisher who had refused to take it back, described my choice as 'slightly left-field'. This is the text, in Middle English, of parts of Thomas à Kempis' extremely simple and beautiful book, as it was first circulated in England in the show more c15th - an amazing testimony to the openness of the English Christians of the day to the best of the literature and insight from the continent of Europe. Within a century this openness to humane and measured spiritual vision had been subverted by ideological disputation - but the intentions which this book embodies speak maybe more powerfully today than they did in the age before printing when these texts were first circulated: and the moderation and openness which this text articulates are a reminder of a moderation in faith from which we might all learn again today. show less

Sherley-Price’s introduction sets the stage for a closed-minded and intolerant book, referring to combatting “godless Communism” and the “anti-Christ”, and including passages such as “For Thomas, as for all Christians, the sole road to God is through the power and teachings of Jesus Christ, true God and true Man; by the subordination of nature to divine grace; by self-discipline; and by devout use of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, in particular that of the Holy show more Eucharist.”

Thomas A Kempis himself isn’t much better:
“Everyone naturally desires knowledge, but of what use is knowledge itself without the fear of God?”
“We are born with an inclination towards evil.”
“all those others who strove to follow in the footsteps of Christ … all hated their lives in this world, that they might keep them to life eternal.”
“And were you to ponder in your mind on the pains of Hell and Purgatory, you would readily endure toil and sorrow, and would shrink from no kind of hardship.”

The messages of humility and simplicity in other parts of the text quickly get lost for me. Man is a worm. God is great. Don’t you dare think of pleasure, or you’ll burn in Hell forever. Ugh.

Read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations instead. Somehow these two have been linked by many, and they shouldn’t be at all. Marcus the pagan was far, far more enlightened. show less

One of my parents' closest friends, who has remained one of my close friends even after watching me grow up (she's a saint), has recently started posting memes on facebook of the "religion is what you have when you fear the world; spirituality is what you have when you love life" variety. Now, there is something to be said for skepticism about organized religion. But this book accidentally makes an argument for skepticism about disorganized religion.

The Imitatio has been very influential, show more so I thought I'd give it a read, more or less for its historical interest. I have no idea how this might work as actual spiritual food, but I do know what it looks like intellectually: massive, disturbing, self-righteous selfishness. The focus of the books' authors (there are four books in here, and I'm pretty sure they're by different people, just due to the shifts in tone and form) is on *you*, dear reader, and how *you* can get through the veil of tears and enter the kingdom of heaven. A large part of doing so, it turns out, is ignoring everyone else and looking into yourself. There is literally *nothing* in here about helping others. No doubt the authors didn't intend to make such a statement--my second suspicion is that the book really was meant to be more like 'tips for how to get along in a religious community' than 'groundwork for spiritual practices.' But whether they intended it or not, the Imitatio mainly counsels a rejection of all other human beings, since they are just stumbling blocks in your way to paradise.

This edition is very well done; it reads clearly, the notes are exhaustive and even if you know literally nothing about the middle ages, bible or Christianity you will rarely be lost.

But I think I'd rather read an Imitation of St. Martin. show less

The prose is beautiful, but the content of this book? That is another matter altogether, particularly in the third section, when much of the content purports to be from the mouth of Christ. As a Christian within the Reformed tradition and confessionally holding to the Three Forms of Unity it was at this point the book went out-of-bound theologically. Do you want to imitate Christ as you live by faith? Then read the Bible and read the Puritans, for their writings contain many of the same show more general ideas but they do so with frequent scripture references and they never claim to be putting words into the mouth of our Savior that were not placed by His Spirit into the Bible. show less