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 statements.

     No claim of literary excellence over the many English versions now extant is here advanced,

nor any attempt to solve in further confusion the problem of the book's authorship.

     Theories most popular at the moment ascribe the Imitation to two or three men, members of

the Brethren of the Common Life, an association of priests organized in the Netherlands in the

latter half of the fourteenth century. That Thomas Hemerken of Kempen, or Thomas À Kempis as

he is now known, later translated a composite of their writings, essentially a spiritual diary, from

the original Netherlandish into Latin is generally admitted by scholars. This Thomas, born about

the year 1380, was educated by the Brethren of the Common Life, was moved to join their

community, and was ordained priest. His career thereafter was devoted to practicing the counsels

of spiritual perfection and to copying books for the schools. From both pursuits evolved The Imitation

of Christ. As editor and translator he was not without faults, but thanks to him the Imitation became

and has remained, after the Bible, the most widely read book in the world. It is his edition that is

here rendered into English, without deletion of chapters or parts of them because doubts exist as

to their authorship, or because of variants in style, or for any of the other more or less valid reasons.

     There is but one major change. The treatise on Holy Communion, which À Kempis places as

Book Three, is here titled Book Four. The move makes the order of the whole more logical and

agrees with the thought of most editors.

     The Translators

     Aloysius Croft

     Harold Bolton

     Prabuddha Bharata>>>

     Vedanta Kesari>>>