The Imitation of Christ: a Review by Teresa Pierce
“We must seek the
good of our soul rather than literary style, and just as gladly read simple and
devout books as those of deep and subtle learning.”[1]
Summary
Imagine Jesus Christ
the carpenter, hands smoothing and shaping a piece of wood; the sawdust floats
in the air between you, and the light entering from the window shines in his
hair and dances in his eyes as he looks up at you, speaking to you, his
disciple and friend. That is the sensation which The Imitation of Christ generates. A picture is worth a thousand
words so it is said, and The Imitation of
Christ uses that principle to great effect, reticent to expostulate too
long on one subject for fear of losing sight of the “picture” and theme, and
that theme is Christ. Kempis’ thesis is that Christ is the model for perfect
interior life, which orients external action for the good. The Imitation of
Christ’s universal appeal as a Christian devotional stems from its practicability
and emphasis on the interior life.
Written in the first
years of the fifteenth century, The Imitation of Christ, or Imitatio Christi as it was originally
named, is a devotional volume in four books. It is attributed to Thomas A
Kempis as it was originally claimed, and though its authorship has been
contested before, scholarship has now come to the consensus that Kempis is the
likely author.[2] Yet the fame of The
Imitation far extends past its author. A google trends search from March 3rd
2021 shows that on average The Imitation remains twice as popular as Kempis,
proof that it has become a universal staple which extends past the author and
age which inspired it. The book uses simple language and a straightforward
approach to foster interior holiness with the aim of doing good for God. Book
one speaks negatively of which worldly and exterior things should be purged for
spiritual growth. Book two speaks positively of what must be fostered and
developed in the interior life. Book three speaks of unity with God, and it
does so in a conversation between Christ and the disciple who represents all
readers everywhere. Book four is an analysis of the importance of the Eucharist
as a tool for spiritual growth. Each book is broken into chapters which in turn
are broken into individual sections each about a paragraph in length. This
clear break down into small sections makes the Imitation a very approachable
work, which can be picked up and read in an individual paragraph apart from the
whole.
Critical
analysis
The Imitation is hardly
the first devotional, with gospel commentaries and psalters existing for
hundreds of years.[3] There are others which
have attained the status of classics, amazing works of wisdom in their own
right, yet The Imitation stands out in the genre of devotionals for its
universal appeal and simple approach to the guidance within. The Spiritual
Exercises of St. Ignatius is a tactical spiritual manual, much as you’d expect
from a former soldier. The formal and strict approach to spirituality could
deter the simple and seeking soul, looking for interior wisdom. The Interior
Castle by Saint Teresa of Avila is a beautiful and transcendent book but it is
a theological treatise that is written with such flowing language that it could
overwhelm someone looking for short clear truths. In short the Imitation is no
less true, but it is more approachable which no doubt led to its universal
appeal, perhaps the reason that it has never gone out of print for six hundred
years.[4]
A true sign of a
universal work is that it endures past the age that it emerges from. Fashions
and trends too closely aligned to the movements of an era can also spell its
death knell, as the changing times outgrow the old, making them dated and
unwanted. A true classic will always remain popular because it contains truths
which never die. The era which spurred the creation of this devotional can be
found in early fifteenth century Europe’s secular and religious milieu. The
second pandemic of the Black plague swept through Europe a hundred years before,
taking one third of all souls while hunger strikes and political unrest shook
the secular world.[5] In the religious world,
Catholics had seen the Church shaken by the unrest of the Avignon papacy. Rome
lay in shambles abandoned for 70 years by papal government. [6]
Spirituality was shaken, and with no clear unity in Church leadership, a need
for individually inspired piety emerged. A movement called Devotio moderna originated in the Netherlands and spread through
central Europe, promoting just such virtues as interior piety and asceticism
over austerity and mysticism.[7]
The followers of this movement later founded the house of Augustinian Canons at
Windesheim, it is at this monastery where Kempis studied and saw the Devotio moderna lived out, inspiring his
creation of the Imitation.
Kempis wrote it for the
use of his fellow Augustinian canons, a religious community who valued
education and dedicated themselves to printing and copying manuscripts. This
dedication to copying manuscripts also contributed to the spread of the book
throughout the Christian world. Therefore the book is not written exclusively
for a monastic audience, for although certain sections have greater applications
for them it speaks to a method of Christian living, which is general and
universal in application. Book one is the most oriented to a religious reader
base, with admonitions to control bad habits and to subjugate the will, but
even it has great universal appeal. In a clear example of this, Chapter 9 warns
of obedience to superiors, and though this refers to a superior of a religious
order, all people live under some form of superior to which they must
answer. Book two, the shortest book of
the four contains reflections for the interior life, advising ways for the
reader to align their spirit in a way closer to God’s will. Friendship, joy,
peace and purity all are elevated as virtues for the reader to cultivate in
their interior life. Book three transitions away from the preceding two’s
didactic approach into a discursive style, a hypothetical conversation between
Christ and “The disciple”, a universal stand in for all readers. It is similar
to medieval mystical texts, with imagined conversation between narrator and a
spiritual figure, a good example of which can be found in the Consolation of
Philosophy by Boethius where the author and Lady Wisdom alternate passages of
questions and answer respectively.
Much like the Devotio moderna movement it influenced
and was influenced by, God approaches the reader in the form of the man Jesus,
and stays resolutely human, confessing the truth of the divine while keeping
the reader’s eyes fixed on God in the simple form of Jesus; a friend walking
beside you while speaking truth. It was just this interiorly focused piety
which made it so popular with the reformation movement. Martin Luther was
influenced by the movement, even reciting the prayer of Jan Mombaer a follower
of the Devotio moderna movement. This
prayer is today known as Luther’s Morning Prayer.[8] In
many ways the Imitation of Christ is the embodied ideals of the reformation,
elevating all of the virtues it emphasized without separation from the church,
an interior piety, personal relationship with Christ, a love for scripture and
personal strive to holiness. Had the reformation not gone so far, perhaps a
Lutheran religious order like the Franciscans or Dominicans would have led to
great reforms within the Church spurred by the Devotio moderna movement. Despite its popularity with Protestants
it has also remained dear to the hearts of many Catholics, Charles Carroll, the
only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence believed it to be the
second most important book after the bible.[9] It
truly is an exemplary work and infinitely value for its universal appeal and
ecumenical opportunity between Christian denominations.
Recommendation for Other Readers:
This book is a uniquely approachable work of
Christian pedagogy, and though it cannot be classed as ancient, it stands out from
historical predecessors and even more modern successors as refreshingly straightforward.
It is not as theologically influential as the Summa Theologiae, or St. Augustine’s Confessions, but it never attempts to be. The universal appeal of
the book is evident by the fact that the book’s popularity persisted past the
spiritual movement which inspired it. The Devotio
moderna stood out from other spiritual movements in the Church. It was anti-speculative
and anti-humanism. St. Catherine of Siena and her works are an excellent
example of the mysticism The Imitation
avoided, and St. Thomas Aquinas and the growth of scholastic Christianity in
the universities showed the humanism it brushed off as well. Not that those
movements were bad, all things have their season and their uses, which the Imitation
of Christ addresses, “To some I speak of ordinary things, to others special
things; to some I appear in signs and figures, while to others I reveal
mysteries in a flood of light.”[10]
Scholasticism studies God as he appears in “signs and figures” and mysticism
studies those mysteries revealed in a flood of light. For any who desire to
hear God speak “of ordinary things” The
Imitation is an excellent work that has rightfully earned its place as a
landmark work of Christian thought.
Any Catholic would
benefit from reading it, as the call to moral duties rings as true for the monk
as the mother. Besides its value as a source of nourishment of the interior
life, a possible but more subjective value of the book is that its influence on
the Reformation could provide an opportunity for ecumenical conversations between
Catholic and Protestant Christians. An advertisement for a newly published
edition of the book reads, “innumerable hosts have found Christian consolation
and guidance from the reading of Kempis' book,”[11] but
besides the price tag of $1.50 and the miniscule newspaper print date of 1893,
one would never know that this praise was written over a century ago, because
it remains as true today. The Imitation of Christ’s universal appeal as a
Christian devotional stems from its emphasis on the interior life, and has
value in the exteriorly focused 21st century.
[1] Thomas
A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, I, 5.1 ed. Clare L. Fitzpatrick (New Jersey:
Catholic Book Publishing Corporation, 1985), 22
[2] P.
Mulhern, “Thomas A Kempis,” In New
Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. Vol 14 (Detroit: Gale 2003), 13.
[3] F.J
Witty, “Prayer Books,” In New Catholic
Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. Vol 12 (Detroit: Gale 2003), 601.
[4] R.
Jay Magill Jr., “Turn Away the World: How a Curious Fifteenth- Century
Spiritual Guidebook Shaped the Contours of the Reformation and Taught Readers
to Turn Inward,” Christianity & Literature 67, no.1 (2017): 35.
[5] P.
Soergel and W. Barron, Jr. “Reformation, Protestant (On the Continent),” In New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd
ed., Vol 12., (Detroit: Gale, 2003.) 12-13.
[6] John
Vidmar, The Catholic Church Through the
Ages: A History, 2nd edition. (New York: Paulist Press, 2014) 167.
[7]
britannica
[8] Magill,
“Turn Away the World,”34-49.
[9] J.
Hagerty, “Charles Carroll of Carrollton,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. Vol 2 (Detroit: Gale
2003), 129.
[10] Thomas A Kempis, “The Imitation of Christ,”207.
[11]
“Reviewed Works: The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis”, The Journal of Education, Vol. 38, No.
13 (1893), p 227.
Bibliography
“Reviewed Works: The
Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.” In The
Journal of Education, Vol. 38, No. 13 1893.
Hagerty, James “Charles
Carroll of Carrollton.” In New Catholic
Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., Vol 2, pg 129. Detroit: Gale, 2003.
Vidmar, John “The
Catholic Church Through the Ages: A History.” 2nd ed. New York: Paulist Press,
2014.
Scully, Vincent “Thomas
A Kempis.” In New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd
ed., Vol 14 pg. 12-13. Detroit: Gale, 2003.
Soergel, P. and W.
Barron, Jr. “Reformation, Protestant (On the Continent).” In New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., Vol
12 pg. 11-22. Detroit: Gale, 2003.
Kempis, Thomas A. The
Imitation of Christ. Ed. Clare L. Fitzpatrick. New Jersey: Catholic Book
Publishing Corporation, 1985.
Magill, Jr., R. Jay.
“Turn Away the World: How a Curious Fifteenth- Century Spiritual Guidebook
Shaped the Contours of the Reformation and Taught Readers to Turn Inward.”
Christianity & Literature 67, no.1 (2017):
34-49.
Witty, F.J. “Prayer
Books,” In New Catholic Encyclopedia,
2nd ed. Vol 12 Detroit: Gale 2003.
Mulhern, P. “Thomas A
Kempis,” In New Catholic Encyclopedia,
2nd ed. Vol 14 Detroit: Gale 2003.
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