title: The Imitation of Christ: Extracts Chosen from Challoner's 1737 Translation, Illustrated with Illuminated Manuscripts
author: Thomas a Kempis
description: This lovely illustrated book uses Richard Challoners 1737translation of 15th-century monk Thomas  Kempiss classic Christiantext. As the foreword by Father David Morland points out, the languagecan sometimes be inaccessible to contemporary readers, who may be putoff by the devotions "other-worldly, penitential, and detached"reflections on imitating Christ. But a deeper look reveals that theDutch monk well understood the perennial issues that are stumblingblocks to Christians of all eras--pride, suffering, self-centeredness,materialism, and anxiety. Complementing the 40 devotional selectionsare details from finely drawn illuminated manuscripts, borrowed fromseveral collections in the British Library. These memorableillustrations are startling in their detail and vivid use of color.<br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: **From the**[ **Christian Classics Ethereal Library**](http://www.ccel.org)
  
   **The Imitation of Christ**
  
   **By**
  
   **Thomas à Kempis**
  
   **Copyright 2010 Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL)**
  
  All rights reserved. For permission to reproduce these works please contact
  CCEL at ccel@calvin.edu.
  
  ****
  
  **THE IMITATION**
  
   **OF CHRIST**
  
  **BY**
  
   **Thomas à Kempis**
  
  * * *
  
  ![](Images/image00116.jpeg)
  
  * * *
  
  * * *
  
  TRANSLATED FROM  
  THE LATIN INTO
  
  MODERN ENGLISH
  
  * * *
  
  THE BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY
  
  MILWAUKEE
  
  Nihil obstat: H. B. Ries, Censor liborum
  
  Imprimatur: +Moyses E. Kiley, Archiepiscopus Milwaukiensis
  
  November 5, 1940
  
  Copyright, 1940
  
  The Bruce Publishing Company
  
  Printed in the U. S. A.
  
  (Ninth Printing – 1949)
  
  * * *
  
  **Foreword**
  
  IN PREPARING this edition of _The Imitation of Christ_ , the aim was to
  achieve a simple, readable text which would ring true to those who are already
  lovers of this incomparable book and would attract others to it. For this
  reason we have