The Imitation of Christ

 The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis

This book has been on my Spin list so many times, but it never gets picked!  However, one of my classics challenges said to pick the title that has been on your TBR pile the longest, and I think this one is it.

Thomas Hämerken (Haemmerlien), of Kempen, Germany, was born in 1380 and died in 1471 -- that's a pretty long run!  His devotional book was written in Latin and appeared in 1470.  It was translated into English just about 30 years later.  The translation I read in an old Oxford classics edition dates from 1613 -- at first I assumed it was written in KJV-style English as an affectation to sound Biblical, but no, it's actually written in the English of King James.  And as a fun aside, my copy contains an inscription from 1943 from the president of Trinity College in Texas.  It was given to a lady named Grace, and since she dated her highlights and notes, I know that she must have read it several times.

The book is actually composed of four short books, each about a different aspect of a devotional life:   There are: "Admonitions Useful for a Spiritual Life," "Admonitions Tending to Things Internal," "Of Internal Consolation," and "Concerning the Sacrament."  These books are all about the inward life -- prayer, meditation, and eschewing worldly concerns -- so they're really only about half of a full life, because there's nothing about externalities.  Not much about loving your neighbor, praying for your enemies, doing good works, or anything like that.  Those topics would have been for other treatises.  Each book has lots of very short chapters about specific topics.

There are lots of good things to think about, but it's written in a style that I personally find difficult, very much like the Book of Proverbs.  So I should have done better with it, but I did enjoy most of it and it would be worth dipping into in future.  It's really more the kind of book where you would read one short section per day and think about it -- which, again, I don't do that well with.  Some quotations:

Vanity it is, to wish to live long, and to be careless of living well.

If I understood all things in the world, and were not in charity [that is, did not love others], what would that help me in the sight of God, who will judge me according to my deeds?  [OK, there is some stuff about externalities!]

Truth, not eloquence, is to be sought for in Holy Scripture.  Each part of the Scripture is to be read with the same Spirit wherewith it was written.

Endeavour to be patient in bearing with the defects and infirmities of others, of what sort soever they be; for that thyself also hast many failings which must be borne with by others.  If thou canst not make thyself such an one as thou wouldest, how canst thou expect to have another in all things to thy liking?

We reprehend small things in others, and pass over greater matters in ourselves.  We quickly enough feel and weigh what we suffer at the hands of others; but we mind not what others suffer from us.  He that well and rightly considereth his own works, will find little cause to judge hardly of another.

[On Jesus as a trusted friend] Thou actest therefore like an idiot, if thou trust or rejoice in any other.  [I just thought this was so jarring that it was funny]

Many love Jesus so long as no adversities befall them.  Many praise and bless Him, so long as they receive any consolations from Him.  But if Jesus hide Himself, and leave them but for a little while; they fall either into complaining, or into too much dejection of mind.

Nature striveth for her own advantage, and considereth what profit she may reap by another; Grace considereth not what is profitable and commodious unto herself, but rather what may be for the good of many.    [This is a chapter that contrasts 'the natural man' with having Christ-like love.  It was exactly like a Goofus and Gallant cartoon, which just goes to show that teachers have used the same tools for a very long time.]

I probably read this too fast, but not bad for a first time.  Sometime I'll dip into it again.  There's a reason it's still around after over 500 years.