Work record

The Imitation of Christ

Thomas à Kempis

Also known as: De Imitatione Christi · The Following of Christ

c. 1418–1427 · Medieval · Religious Scripture · Latin

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Abstract

Written: c. 1418–1427 (autograph manuscript dated 1441)
Setting: Early fifteenth century; Monastery of Mount St Agnes, near Zwolle, Netherlands
Author: Thomas à Kempis; trans. William Benham
Country: Low Countries (modern Netherlands)
Language: Latin
Genre: Devotional treatise
Form: Four books of short prose chapters, the third cast as a dialogue
Recommended: Grades 9–12 (Short devotional chapters; slow reading rewards reflection.)

Background. In the Low Countries around 1400, a reform movement of priests, lay brothers and sisters sought holiness through shared simple living, manual copying of books and private prayer. A canon who spent seventy years in one cloister gave that movement its most famous expression.

Teaching. Readers are urged to prefer a holy life to clever learning, to know their own weakness, to avoid gossip and to keep death in view. Suffering borne in love is presented as the road every follower must travel.

Form. Short numbered paragraphs and proverb-like sentences make each chapter a brief meditation. The third part becomes a conversation in which the Lord answers a disciple's fears; the last part prepares the reader for Communion.

Reception. Printed constantly since the 1470s, it was used by Catholics and adapted by Protestants, who often dropped the Eucharistic book. Admirers praise its candour about pride and temptation; critics think it too wary of the world and of human affection.

In the library. The complete four books appear here in William Benham's Victorian English version of 1874. Readers new to it often begin with the first ten chapters of the opening book and the chapter praising love in the third, then move through the rest a few pages a day.

Key figures

Thomas à Kempis: Augustinian canon and copyist, the traditional author
Geert Groote: Founder of the Devotio Moderna, whose ideals the book expresses
The disciple: The reader's voice in the dialogues of Book III
Christ: The speaker who answers the disciple in Book III

Summary

The Imitation of Christ is a book of short devotional chapters written in Latin in the early fifteenth century and generally attributed to Thomas à Kempis, a canon of the monastery of Mount St Agnes in the Netherlands. It grew out of the Devotio Moderna, a reform movement among clergy and lay people in the Low Countries that valued humility, prayer, simple living and personal knowledge of Christ above learned debate. The work circulated anonymously in hundreds of manuscripts and, after the invention of printing, in thousands of editions; it has been translated into most of the world's languages and is often described as the most widely read Christian book after the Bible. The book has four parts. The first offers admonitions useful for the spiritual life: the reader is told to despise vain learning and worldly honour, to know his own weakness, to avoid idle talk, to bear patiently with others and to remember death and judgment. The second turns inward, describing the peace of a humble heart, the value of a good conscience, friendship with Jesus and the 'royal way of the holy Cross', the claim that suffering accepted in love is the path of every disciple. The third and longest part is a dialogue between the disciple and Christ, who speaks to the soul about grace and nature, self-denial, the vanity of seeking human praise and the freedom that comes from resting in God alone. Its most quoted chapter praises love as a great thing that makes every burden light. The fourth part is a guide to receiving Holy Communion with reverence and preparation, written for a reader who attends Mass. The style is plain and proverbial, full of echoes of Scripture and of short sentences easy to memorize. Readers have valued the Imitation for its honesty about temptation and its call to inner reform; critics, including some Protestant and modern readers, have found it too suspicious of the world, of learning and of ordinary human affection. Both Catholics and Protestants have printed and used it, including John Wesley, who published an edition, and figures as different as Ignatius of Loyola and Thomas More, who read it closely.

Plot or Argument

Book I: Admonitions for the spiritual life
Contempt for vain learning and honours; self-knowledge; obedience; avoiding idle talk; patience with others; remembering death and judgment.
Book II: Admonitions concerning the inner life
Peace of a humble heart, a good conscience, friendship with Jesus and the royal way of the Holy Cross.
Book III: Of inward consolation
A dialogue in which Christ teaches the disciple about grace, love, self-denial, trust and the freedom of resting in God.
Book IV: Of the Sacrament of the Altar
Devout exhortations on preparing for and receiving Holy Communion with faith and reverence.

Lessons

Knowledge and humility
The opening chapters prefer a humble life to learned argument: what matters at the last judgment is what we have done, not what we have read. The point is not that study is bad but that knowledge without love is empty.
- Is the book fair to learning, or does it undervalue study?
- What would it mean to read this book for practice rather than information?
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Carrying the cross
Book II argues that suffering cannot be avoided and that accepting it in love unites the disciple to Christ. The idea has comforted many readers and troubled others.
- How does the author distinguish patient endurance from passivity?
- Can suffering have meaning without being sought?
Related across the library
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Humility about knowledge
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- Is the warning against curiosity fair to science and scholarship?
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- On Christian Doctrine, Book II, Ch. 18
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For the Christian reader
The Imitation has been read by Catholics and Protestants alike for nearly six centuries as a school of humility and devotion to Christ. Students can read it as Thomas intended: slowly, a chapter at a time, as an aid to prayer and self-examination, testing its counsel against Scripture (Philippians 2:5–8; Luke 9:23).
- Which chapter most challenges your own habits of thought or speech?
- How does Thomas's call to imitate Christ compare with Paul's in Philippians 2?
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- The Internal Secretion of the Pancreas, Lesson: For the Christian reader
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Context

The Imitation comes from the Devotio Moderna, a movement begun by Geert Groote in Deventer in the 1370s. Its Brethren and Sisters of the Common Life lived in shared houses without full monastic vows, copied books and ran schools, and the Windesheim Congregation of Augustinian canons, to which Mount St Agnes belonged, carried the same ideals into monasteries.

Composition

The four books were written separately, probably between about 1418 and 1427, and circulated as distinct treatises before being gathered together. A manuscript in Thomas à Kempis's own hand, dated 1441, survives in Brussels. Authorship was disputed for centuries, with claims made for Jean Gerson and others, but most scholars accept Thomas.

Reception

The book was among the first works printed in the 1470s and became a staple of Catholic devotion. Protestant editors adapted it, often leaving out the fourth book on the Eucharist. Its influence runs through the spiritual writing of later centuries, from Ignatius of Loyola to John Wesley and Thérèse of Lisieux.

Faith / Religion Virtue Ethics Death / Mortality Isolation / Alienation Identity Self

Comparisons

The Rule of St Benedict
Both shape a disciplined life of prayer and humility, but Benedict writes rules for a community, while the Imitation speaks to the individual heart.
Confessions
Augustine's inward search for God, told as autobiography, lies behind the Imitation's language of the restless soul finding rest in God.
The Practice of the Presence of God
Brother Lawrence, two centuries later, offers a similar simple path of constant attention to God amid ordinary work.
The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus
Teresa's account of prayer is more personal and mystical, but she shares the Imitation's stress on humility and detachment.
The Pilgrim's Progress
Bunyan dramatizes as allegory the same journey of self-denial and perseverance that the Imitation presents as counsel.
Sermons on Several Occasions and Primitive Physick
John Wesley read and published the Imitation, and his sermons on Christian perfection draw on its call to inward holiness.
The Story of a Soul
Thérèse of Lisieux knew the Imitation almost by heart, and her 'little way' echoes its humility.

Quotes

Frequently cited

“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, save to love God, and Him only to serve.”

— Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter I: Of the imitation of Christ, and of contempt of the world and all its vanities, trans. William Benham (1874).Quote card

The Roman History, Book XVIII: Argument
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Frequently cited

“For man proposeth, but God disposeth; and the way of a man is not in himself.”

— Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter XIX: Of the exercises of a religious man, trans. William Benham (1874).Quote card

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The Red Badge of Courage, Chapter IX
He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage. Walking among the wounded after his flight, Henry envies men with torn bodies because their wounds prove they stood and fought.
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A Farewell to Arms, Book III, Chapter XXVII
I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. When the patriot Gino says the summer's dead cannot have died in vain, Frederic keeps silent and thinks about the proclamations he has read.

“Of a surety, at the Day of Judgment it will be demanded of us, not what we have read, but what we have done; not how well we have spoken, but how holily we have lived.”

— Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, Chapter III: Of the knowledge of truth, trans. William Benham (1874).Quote card

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“Love is a great thing, a good above all others, which alone maketh every heavy burden light, and equaliseth every inequality.”

— Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, Chapter V: Of the wonderful power of the Divine Love, trans. William Benham (1874).Quote card

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For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

How Book I contrasts learning with holiness.
The 'royal way of the holy Cross' in Book II, chapter 12.
The change of voice in Book III to a dialogue between Christ and the disciple.
The chapter on love in Book III, chapter 5.

Key terms and names

Devotio Moderna: A late-medieval reform movement in the Low Countries stressing inward piety, humility and simple common life.
Contempt of the world: Not hatred of creation but refusal to make wealth, honour or pleasure the goal of life.
Consolation: Inner comfort given by God; the book teaches not to depend on it.
Sacrament of the Altar: The Eucharist, or Holy Communion, the subject of Book IV.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension What does Book I, chapter 1, say is the highest wisdom?
Comprehension Who are the two speakers in Book III?
Interpretation Why does the author distrust learned argument, and is his distrust justified?
Interpretation What does 'imitation' of Christ mean in this book: copying his actions, sharing his attitudes, or something else?
Interpretation Why might the book have been written for members of a religious community, and how does that shape its advice?
Big Question Can a person become better mainly by changing inward attitudes, or must outward circumstances change first?

Faith Connections

Luke 9:23 (Scripture)
'If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me': the text behind Book II's royal way of the Cross.
Ecclesiastes 1:2 (Scripture)
The 'vanity of vanities' that the first chapter turns into a rule of life.
Augustine, Confessions (Great Conversation)
The restless heart that finds rest only in God is the Imitation's starting point.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: True wisdom lies not in learning, honour or comfort but in humble love of God shown by following Christ, accepting suffering and receiving grace, especially in the sacrament.

Rhetorical device: aphorism. 'Man proposeth, but God disposeth' compresses an argument about grace and human planning into a memorable proverb.

Debate: Resolved: that the Imitation's distrust of learning is good advice for students today.

Memory Work

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, save to love God, and Him only to serve.
Book 1, Chapter I: Of the imitation of Christ, and of contempt of the world and all its vanities, trans. William Benham (1874). A one-line summary of the whole book's aim.

Love is a great thing, a good above all others, which alone maketh every heavy burden light, and equaliseth every inequality.
Book 3, Chapter V: Of the wonderful power of the Divine Love, trans. William Benham (1874). A short, memorable praise of love.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain what The Imitation of Christ means by 'contempt of the world'. Is it a healthy or unhealthy ideal? Use at least two chapters as evidence.

Comparison with Confessions: Compare how Augustine and Thomas à Kempis describe the soul's search for God. Which gives more weight to the intellect, and why?

Creative Prompts

Fiction
Keep a week-long journal applying one short sentence from Book I each day, recording where it was easy or hard to practise.
Dialogue
Write a short dialogue in the style of Book III in which a modern student brings a worry to Christ and receives an answer drawn from the book's teaching.
Dialogue
Write a dialogue between a student and the author on whether studying hard and seeking humility can go together.