title: The Imitation of Christ: Paraphrased
author: Thomas a Kempis
description: This classic has drawn thousands of readers down the ages, including Henry VIII's chancellor Thomas More, John Wesley, Irish patriot Daniel O'Connell and St Ignatius of Loyola, who reputedly would offer the book as a gift to acquaintances. Not surprisingly for such a timeless, readable and profound work, it still has many fans. The author, born in Germany and later a monk at Mount St Agnes, Zwolle, made a copy of the Bible as well as writing three other devotional works. He died in 1471. This book is remarkably contemporary in translation, losing none of its simplicity and profoundity. In a chapter on 'despising the world's honours', for example, 'God' advises: 'My son, don't feel down in the dumps when you see others being promoted ... raise your heart to me in heaven and the disdain the world shows you will no longer grieve you.' This edition, part of a series of resurrected spiritual classics and nicely presented in paperback, makes an ideal gift. (Kirkus UK) --(Kirkus UK)
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  The Imitation of Christ
  
  
  
  
  
  _BY_
  
  
  
  
  
  _THOMAS À KEMPIS_
  
  
  
  
  
  _TRANSLATED FROM_
  
  
  _THE LATIN INTO_
  
  
  _MODERN ENGLISH_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  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 attempted to render the text into English as it is spoken today
  rather than the cloudy, archaic terminology that encumbers so many
  translations of Christian classics. The result, we feel, has achieved a
  directness and conciseness which will meet the approval of modern readers. In
  the second place, we have made use of the familiar paragraph form, doing away
  with the simple statement or verse form of the original and of many
  translations. This was done in the interest of easier reading, and in order to
  bring out more clearly the connection between the single statement