Only the Bible has been more influential as a source of Christian devotional reading than The Imitation of Christ, which has inspired readers from Thomas More and St. Ignatius Loyola to Thomas Merton and Pope John Paul II.
The Imitation of Christ is the work of at least three men: Gerard Groote, Florent Radewijns, and Thomas Kempis. Groote and Radewijns were founders of the Brethren of the Common Life, a lay religious society that flourished in the Netherlands from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Kempis worked on their manuscripts, first as a compiler and editor, and then as a coauthor.
In this new translation of Imitation of Christ, William Griffin uses a variety of methods to make the insights of this seminal exposition of Christian life more accessible to all.
Thomas Kempis (1379/80-1471) was a Christian theologian. Kempis joined the Windesheim congregation at Agnietenberg monastery, where he remained almost continually for over 70 years. He took his vows in 1408, was ordained in 1413, and devoted his life to copying manuscripts and directing novices.
H. William Griffin is the former religion editor at Macmillan and Publishers Weekly, the author and editor of several books, and a charter member of the Crysostom Society of Christian Writers. He is editor of The Joyful Christian, a bestselling selection of C.S. Lewis writings and is the author of a major biography of C.S. Lewis.
"I cannot recall when an inspired translation has so effectively converted a timeless classic into an idiom that goes straight to my modern bones." -Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions