2018 marks 600th anniversary of popular ‘Imitation of Christ’ book
Lottie Moon, the great Baptist missionary to China, loved “The Imitation of Christ.” It was one of the few books next to the Bible she cherished.
The author of the book was Thomas à Kempis (1380–1471), and that volume was one of the most popular and best-known devotional books of all time.
This year marks the 600th anniversary of the publication of the classic book.
Thomas, a German priest, monk and author, was born to Johann and Gertrud Hemerken in 1380 in Kempen, near Dusseldorf, Germany. His father was a blacksmith and his mother a schoolmistress.
His name means Thomas “of Kempen,” after his hometown. He followed his brother, Johann, to Deventer, Netherlands, to attend the famous Latin school there. Gerard Groote, founder of the Brethren of the Common Life, started the school. Thomas stayed from 1392 to 1399.
At 19 he entered the monastery at Mount Saint Agnes, which the Brethren of the Common Life founded near Zwolle. Thomas’ brother, Johann, was the administrator of the monastery. In 1406, Thomas became a novice and the next year he took vows with the Augustinian canons. In 1413 he became an ordained priest.
He dedicated his time to prayer, study, copying manuscripts, teaching novices, offering Mass and listening to confessions of those who came to the monastery. For several years he served as an administrator but he preferred being alone.
He also wrote sermons, letters, hymns, biographies and stories about the lives of the saints.
“The Imitation of Christ” was based on four booklets he wrote between 1420 and 1427 while instructing novices. Its first treatise, “Admonitions Profitable for the Spiritual Life,” sets out the main requirement for the spiritually serious Christian. “We must imitate Christ’s life and His ways if we are to be truly enlightened and set free from the darkness of our own hearts,” Thomas writes.
The next treatise, “Admonitions Concerning the Inner Life,” speaks of basic spiritual virtues. Thomas writes, “Turn with all your heart to the Lord and forsake this miserable world and you shall find rest for your soul.”
The third and longest section, “On Inward Consolation,” deals with the trials of the spiritual life. “Don’t think yourself totally abandoned, although for the time I have sent to you some tribulation or have even withdrawn some cherished consolation, for this is the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Another section, “Of the Sacrament of the Altar,” examines how the Eucharist can help the faithful draw close to Christ. “Go forward therefore with simple and undoubting faith and draw near to the Sacrament with supplicating reverence,” Thomas exhorts.
Widely translated
The book has been, after the Bible, the most widely translated and printed book in Christian literature. Thomas left his mark.
But despite living a peaceful life of solitude and reflection, the end of Thomas’ earthly life was anything but peaceful. After spending more than 70 years in the monastery, Thomas was declared dead July 25, 1471, and subsequently buried. When his body later was exhumed, scratch marks were found on the underside of his coffin and wood splinters under his fingernails. Some reports say he had been accidentally buried alive and some note that this was why the Catholic Church never made him a saint.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — Joanne Sloan, a member of First Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa, has been a published writer of articles and books for 30 years. She has a bachelor’s degree double majoring in history and English from East Texas State University (now Texas A&M University–Commerce) and a master’s degree specializing in English from the University of Arkansas (1978).
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