A Review of Thomas a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ

 The Imitation of Christ is a profound work of spiritual devotion that offers readers keen instruction in how to reach Christian perfection. Though this incredible spiritual reading has been attributed to various different writers, it is believed to have been written by Thomas a Kempis, who lived from 1380 to 1471. The Imitation is “filled with practical advice on how to pray and live a Christian life,”¹ and it became so commonly known that “with the exception of the Bible, it is perhaps the most widely read spiritual book in the world.”²

This spiritual work instructs readers to live like Christ and to heed His commands. It directs Christians to remove vice from their lives, resist temptation, mortify their flesh, and to foster virtue. One way in which Kempis encourages Christians to root out their sins and evil ways is by contemplating the fleetingness of this life and by withdrawing oneself from the world. Oftentimes, more attention is paid to the passing concerns of the present, rather than to the concerns of the eternal life to come. Thus, by considering the temporary nature of this life, one will be more likely to prepare oneself for death than to be swept up by the vanity of the world. The Imitation prompts readers to ask themselves, “if you are not prepared today, how will you be prepared tomorrow? Tomorrow is an uncertain day; how do you know you will have a tomorrow?”³ Thus, Kempis wrote, “blessed is he who keeps the moment of death ever before his eyes and prepares for it every day.”⁴

In order to prepare for death, Kempis communicates that Christians must live completely for Christ, grow in virtue, accept one’s suffering, and unite oneself to Christ through the sacrament of Holy Communion. Repeatedly, the Imitation emphasizes the importance of fostering virtue, such as patience and humility, and of the dangers and evil of sin, such as gossip and pride. Kempis therefore explains that one is wise who loves “to be unknown and considered as nothing.”⁵ Further, Christians are instructed not to despise their crosses, but to accept them and to be thankful for the purification that such suffering will bring to their souls. The reader is told to “learn, then, to suffer little things now that you may not have to suffer greater ones in eternity,”⁶ and moreover, “the mortified body will rejoice far more than if it had been pampered with every pleasure.”⁷

In book four of Kempis’ Imitation of Christ, he concludes by explaining the importance of adequately preparing for and receiving the Eucharist. He explains that many have forgotten how wonderful the gift of the Eucharist truly is, and that Christians must therefore constantly renew their hearts by deeply pondering this mystery of salvation. So much so, every time that Mass is celebrated, the Eucharist “should seem as great, as new, as sweet to you as if on that very day Christ became man in the womb of the Virgin, or, hanging on the Cross, suffered and died for the salvation of man.”⁸

It is clear, then, that what Kempis believed to be important for reaching Christian perfection “is the spiritual experience of encounter with Christ, his cross, his obedience to the Father, his humility, mercy, and unconditional love, and his passion and death.”⁹ By living like Christ, and for Him in all things, Christians will grow in virtue, persevere in suffering, and by God’s grace, will climb the heights of spiritual perfection. Though this work of spiritual devotion was originally published in 1418, it’s instruction and teachings are timeless and remain beneficial for Christians today. “The power of the piercing gaze of Thomas’s work into the deceitful labyrinth of the human heart and into the nature of the true lover of God make the Imitatione relevant still today.”¹⁰ The Imitation of Christ is therefore an invaluable work that should be frequently read and prayed with, because it serves as an effective aid for Christians seeking to attain Christian perfection.

 

¹ John Vidmar, The Catholic Church Through the Ages, (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2014), 147.

² "Imitation of Christ," The Catholic Encyclopedia 7, (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910), at New Advent (28 Feb. 2023), at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07674c.htm.

³ Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, (Garden City, NY: Dover Publications, 2003), 21.

⁴ Kempis, The Imitation, 21.

⁵ Kempis, The Imitation, 3.

⁶ Kempis, The Imitation, 24.

⁷ Kempis, The Imitation, 24.

⁸ Kempis, The Imitation, 120.

⁹ Leonardo Boff, The Following of Jesus: A Reply to the Imitation of Christ, (Maryknoll, NY: ORBIS, 2019), introduction.

¹⁰ Marco Barone, “Knowledge and Piety: Thomas à Kempis in Henricus Pontanus's Funeral Oration for Petrus van Mastricht,” Puritan Reformed Journal 13, no. 1 (2021), 35.