DOCSLIB.ORG

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas, À Kempis About the Imitation of Christ by Thomas, À Kempis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas, À Kempis About the Imitation of Christ by Thomas, À Kempis The Imitation of Christ by Thomas, à Kempis About The Imitation of Christ by Thomas, à Kempis Title: The Imitation of Christ URL: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/kempis/imitation.html Author(s): Thomas, à Kempis, 1380-1471 Publisher: Wheaton, IL: Christian Classics Ethereal Library Description: For five hundred years, this gentle book, filled with the spirit of the love of God, has brought understanding and comfort to millions of readers in over fifty languages, and provided them with a source of heart-felt personal prayer. These meditations on the life and teachings of Jesus, written in times even more troubled and dangerous than our own, have become second only to the Bible as a guide and inspiration. It is now available in a MODERN TRANSLATION that retains the flavor of the original English translation. First Published: ca. 1400 Publication History: This book had been published in over 6000 editions by 1900 -- more than one per month for 500 years. It has been called the most-published of all books other than the Bible. Print Basis: Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company, 1949, c1940. Rights: Public Domain Date Created: 1998-12-10 Status: Preliminary released version has been proofread and is pretty clean. Names and scripture references have been marked, but only token index entries added. Uses a preliminary version of ThML; subject to change. General Comments: A copyright renewal search did not find record of copyright renewal for the source edition of this text. Editorial Comments: Unambiguous end-of-line hyphens removed. Contributor(s): whp (Transcriber) CCEL Subjects: All; Classic; Mysticism; Proofed LC Call no: BV4821 .A1 LC Subjects: Practical theology Practical religion. The Christian life Works of meditation and devotion The Imitation of Christ Thomas, à Kempis Table of Contents About This Book. p. ii Title Page. p. 1 Foreword. p. 3 Thoughts Helpful in the Life of the Soul. p. 4 Imitating Christ and Despising All Vanities on Earth. p. 4 Having a Humble Opinion of Self. p. 5 The Doctrine of Truth. p. 5 Prudence in Action. p. 7 Reading the Holy Scripture. p. 7 Unbridled Affections. p. 7 Avoiding False Hope and Pride. p. 8 Shunning Over-Familiarity. p. 8 Obedience and Subjection. p. 9 Avoiding Idle Talk. p. 9 Acquiring Peace and Zeal for Perfection. p. 10 The Value of Adversity. p. 11 Resisting Temptation. p. 11 Avoiding Rash Judgment. p. 12 Works Done in Charity. p. 13 Bearing with the Faults of Others. p. 14 Monastic Life. p. 14 The Example Set Us by the Holy Fathers. p. 15 The Practices of a Good Religious. p. 16 The Love of Solitude and Silence. p. 17 Sorrow of Heart. p. 19 Thoughts on the Misery of Man. p. 20 Thoughts on Death. p. 21 Judgment and the Punishment of Sin. p. 22 Zeal in Amending our Lives. p. 24 The Interior Life. p. 27 Meditation. p. 27 Humility. p. 28 Goodness and Peace in Man. p. 29 Purity of Mind and Unity of Purpose. p. 30 Ourselves. p. 30 iii The Imitation of Christ Thomas, à Kempis The Joy of a Good Conscience. p. 31 Loving Jesus Above All Things. p. 32 The Intimate Friendship of Jesus. p. 32 Wanting No Share in Comfort. p. 33 Appreciating God©s Grace. p. 35 Few Love the Cross of Jesus. p. 36 The Royal Road of the Holy Cross. p. 37 Internal Consolation. p. 40 The Inward Conversation of Christ with the Faithful Soul. p. 40 Truth Speaks Inwardly Without the Sound of Words. p. 40 Listen Humbly to the Words of God. Many Do Not Heed Them. p. 41 We Must Walk Before God in Humility and Truth. p. 43 The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love. p. 44 The Proving of a True Lover. p. 45 Grace Must Be Hidden Under the Mantle of Humility. p. 46 Self-Abasement in the Sight of God. p. 48 All Things should be Referred to God as their Last End. p. 48 To Despise the World and Serve God is Sweet. p. 49 The Longings of our Hearts Must be Examined and Moderated. p. 50 Acquiring Patience in the Fight Against Concupiscence. p. 51 The Obedience of One Humbly Subject to the Example of Jesus Christ. p. 52 Consider the Hidden Judgments of God Lest You Become Proud of Your Own Good Deeds. p. 53 How One Should Feel and Speak on Every Desirable Thing. p. 54 True Comfort Is to Be Sought in God Alone. p. 54 All Our Care is to Be Placed in God. p. 55 Temporal Sufferings Should Be Borne Patiently, After the Example of Christ. p. 56 True Patience in Suffering. p. 57 Confessing Our Weakness in the Miseries of Life. p. 58 Above All Goods and All Gifts We Must Rest in God. p. 59 Remember the Innumerable Gifts of God. p. 60 Four Things Which Bring Great Peace. p. 61 Avoiding Curious Inquiry About the Lives of Others. p. 63 The Basis of Firm Peace of Heart and True Progress. p. 63 The Excellence of a Free Mind, Gained Through Prayer Rather Than By Study. p. 64 Self-Love is the Greatest Hindrance to the Highest Good. p. 65 Strength Against Slander. p. 66 iv The Imitation of Christ Thomas, à Kempis How We Must Call Upon and Bless the Lord When Trouble Presses. p. 67 The Quest of Divine Help and Confidence in Regaining Grace. p. 67 To Find the Creator, Forsake All Creatures. p. 68 Self-Denial and the Renunciation of Evil Appetites. p. 70 Restlessness of SoulÐDirecting Our Final Intention Toward God. p. 70 God is Sweet Above All Things and in All Things to Those Who Love Him. p. 71 There is No Security from Temptation in This Life. p. 72 The Vain Judgments of Men. p. 73 Pure and Entire Resignation of Self to Obtain Freedom of Heart. p. 74 The Right Ordering of External Affairs; Recourse to God in Dangers. p. 75 A Man Should Not Be Unduly Solicitous About His Affairs. p. 75 Man Has No Good in Himself and Can Glory in Nothing. p. 76 Contempt for All Earthly Honor. p. 77 Peace is Not to Be Placed in Men. p. 78 Beware Vain and Worldly Knowledge. p. 78 Do Not Be Concerned About Outward Things. p. 79 All Men Are Not to Be Believed, for It Is Easy to Err in Speech. p. 80 Trust in God Against Slander. p. 81 Every Trial Must Be Borne for the Sake of Eternal Life. p. 82 The Day of Eternity and the Distresses of This Life. p. 83 The Desire of Eternal Life; the Great Rewards Promised to Those Who Struggle. p. 84 How a Desolate Person Ought to Commit Himself Into the Hands of God. p. 86 When We Cannot Attain to the Highest, We Must Practice the Humble Works. p. 87 A Man Ought Not to Consider Himself Worthy of Consolation, But Rather Deserving of Chastisement. p. 88 God©s Grace Is Not Given to the Earthly Minded. p. 89 The Different Motions of Nature and Grace. p. 90 The Corruption of Nature and the Efficacy of Divine Grace. p. 92 We Ought to Deny Ourselves and Imitate Christ Through Bearing the Cross. p. 93 A Man Should Not Be Too Downcast When He Falls Into Defects. p. 94 High Matters and.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • EKBERT of SCHÖNAU, Stimulus Amoris
    EKBERT OF SCHÖNAU, Stimulus amoris; THOMAS A KEMPIS, Imitatio Christi; PS.- AUGUSTINE [PATRICK OF DUBLIN?], De triplici habitaculo In Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment Southern France (?), c. 1440-1480 i (paper) + 89 + i (paper) folios on parchment, modern foliation in pencil top outer corner, complete (collation, i-viii10 ix10 [-10, cancelled with no loss of text]), no catchwords or signatures, ruled in lead with single full-length bounding lines, (justification, 111-110 x 90-87 mm.), written below the top line in a southern gothic bookhand in two columns of thirty lines, majuscules within text touched with red, red rubrics, two- to five-line red initials, lower margin, f. 1, excised, inscription in red on last page erased, rodent damage to lower, outer margin, with some loss of text, ff. 4-17 (usually a few letters in the bottom five or six lines) and more extensive damage to ff. 76-77, ink flaking on some folios. Bound in vellum over thin pasteboard in the seventeenth or eighteenth century, title, “Gersonis,” and shelfmark, “2[?]3,”written on spine in ink, two holes front and back covers from ties (now missing), some damage to the parchment covering the spine, but overall in good condition. Dimensions 166 x 123 mm. The Imitation of Christ’s call to follow the life of Christ as told in the Gospels may explain why it is still widely read today; hundreds of surviving manuscript copies witness its popularity during the later Middle Ages. Here it is accompanied by two texts that reflect other sides of medieval religious life – the extreme devotion to the Passion and the Cross of Ekbert of Schönau’s Stimulus amoris, and speculation on heaven, hell, and earth, found in De triplici habitaculo.
    [Show full text]
  • “The Imitation of Christ” 1 John 3:1-7
    Aaron Coyle-Carr 11:00 service Wilshire Baptist Church 15 April, 2018 Dallas, Texas “The Imitation of Christ” 1 John 3:1-7 A little book called The Imitation themselves, just as he is pure.” of Christ is perhaps the most And then later on in verse seven, popular piece of devotional “everyone who does what is material in all of Christian right is righteous, just as he is history, apart from the Bible, of righteous.” It’s pretty clear that course. First John believes that the beloved community, the church, Written in the early 1400s by a is made up of those who spend Dutch monk named Thomas, the their lives imitating Jesus. It is book begins like this: the sincerest form of flattery, after all. “‘He that followeth Me, walketh not in darkness,’ saith the Lord. And there’s some powerful truth These are the words of Christ, by to this idea of imitation. which we are taught how we Elsewhere in the New ought to imitate his life and Testament, Paul asks the church manners, if we would truly be at Corinth to be imitators of him, enlightened, and delivered from even as he imitates Christ. We all blindness of heart.” 1 should be imitators of Christ, but I worry that, in the modern For Thomas, disillusioned by the world especially, the idea of material excess and superstition imitation doesn’t go nearly far of the medieval church, the key enough. to all of Christian spirituality was pretty basic: being a faithful Almost fifteen years ago, a Christian simply meant imitating landmark project called “The the life of Jesus Christ.
    [Show full text]
  • “This Translation—The First Into English—Of the Life of Jesus Christ By
    “This translation—the first into English—of The Life of Jesus Christ by Ludolph of Saxony will be welcomed both by scholars in various fields and by practicing Christians. It is at the same time an encyclopedia of biblical, patristic, and medieval learning and a compendium of late medieval spirituality, stressing the importance of meditation in the life of individual believers. It draws on an astonishing number of sources and sheds light on many aspects of the doctrinal and institutional history of the Church down to the fourteenth century.” — Giles Constable Professor Emeritus Princeton University “Milton T. Walsh has taken on a Herculean task of translating The Life of Christ by the fourteenth-century Carthusian, Ludolph of Saxony. He has more than risen to the challenge! Ludolph’s text was one of the most widely spread and influential treatments of the theme in the later Middle Ages and has, until now, been available only in an insufficient late nineteenth-century edition (Rigollot). The manuscript tradition of The Life of Christ (Vita Christi) is extremely complex, and Walsh, while basing his translation on the edition, has gone beyond in providing critical apparatus that will be of significant use to scholars, as well as making the text available for students and all interested in the theology, spirituality, and religious life of the later Middle Ages. His introduction expertly places Ludolph’s work in the textual tradition and is itself a contribution to scholarship. Simply put, this is an amazing achievement!” — Eric Leland Saak Professor of History Indiana University “Walsh has done pioneering work unearthing the huge range of patristic, scholastic, and contemporary sources that Ludolph drew upon, enabling us to re-evaluate the Vita as an encyclopedic compilation, skillfully collating a range of interpretations of the gospel scenes to meditational ends.
    [Show full text]
  • Imitation of Christ-Layout-12072017.Indd
    BOOK ONE Practical advice about the spiritual life 1. we must take christ for our model, and despise the shams of earth He who follows me can never walk in darkness,1 our Lord says. Here are words of Christ, words of warning; if we want to see our way truly, never a trace of blindness left in our hearts, it is his life, his character, we must take for our model. Clearly, then, we must make it our chief business to train our thoughts upon the life of Jesus Christ. 2. Christ’s teaching—how it overshadows all the Saints have to teach us! Could we but master its spirit, what a store of hidden manna we should find there! How is it that so many of us can hear the Gospel read out again and again, with so little emotion? Because they haven’t got the spirit of Christ; that is why. If a man wants to understand Christ’s words fully, and relish the flavourSAMPLE of them, he must be one who is trying to fashion his whole life on Christ’s model. 3. Talk as learnedly as you will about the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, it will get you no thanks from the Holy Trinity if you aren’t humble about it. After all, it isn’t learned talk that saves a man or makes a Saint of him; only a life well lived can claim God’s friendship. For myself, I would sooner know what contrition feels like, than how to define it. Why, if you had the whole of Scripture and all the maxims of the philosophers at your finger-tips, what would be the use of it all, without God’s love and God’s grace? 1 Jn 8:12.
    [Show full text]
  • The Mind and Will of Christ
    THE HUMAN MIND AND WILL OF CHRIST By EDWARD YARNOLD ESUS WAS FULLY GOD and a real man. What did this mean in practice? In particular, what did it feel like to be both God and man? Was the sense of divinity so strong that Jesus' human J knowledge and will, though always present, were almost irrele- vant, as an electric light is useless and almost unnoticed in a room lit by strong sunlight? But this is virtual monophysitism, the heresy that Jesus' human nature was absorbed into his divinity. So perhaps the divine knowledge was sealed off from the human knowledge, so that at the divine level of his consciousness he was all-knowing, while at the human level he knew himself only as a man, beset by ignorance and doubt, though admittedly not sin. No, this is virtual nestorianism, the heresy that separates a human person in Christ from the divine. How then do we escape this dilemma? Professor Eric Mascall cast doubt upon the validity of any attempt to study Jesus' psychology, when he wrote: I am frankly amazed to find how often the problem of the incarnation is taken as simply the problem of describing the mental life and consciousness of the incarnate Lord, for this problem seems to me to be strictly insoluble. If I am asked to say what I believe it feels like to be God incarnate I can only reply that I have not the slightest idea and I should not expect to have it. 1 Nevertheless, there are good reasons for trying to penetrate as deeply as we can into this situation which is beyond our experience.
    [Show full text]
  • Imitation of Christ'' in Christian Tradition: It's Missing Charismatic Emphasis
    The "Imitation of Christ'' In Christian Tradition: It's Missing Charismatic Emphasis Jon Mark Ruthven, PhD Professor Emeritus, Regent University School of Divinity Part I Popular American culture, with its increasing focus on the spiritual,1 has generated a minor fad among teenagers: a WWJD? (“What Would Jesus Do?”) bracelet, which, while bouncing on the wrists of video game players and entangling the TV remote, clicking in gangsta rappers on MTV, seeks to draw its wearers toward an “imitation of Christ.” The WWJD bracelet expresses this more or less continuous tradition throughout church history to replicate the life of Christ, the tradition having deep but somewhat selectively attended roots in the New Testament itself. The devotional classics ranging from St Thomas à Kempis’s Imitatio Christi to Charles Sheldon’s In His Steps easily spring to mind as examples. But this notion of “following Jesus,” “discipleship” or “spirituality” calls up a historically conditioned set of restrictions on how far that “imitation” may be applied. Traditionally, aside from minor movements in the radical reformation or from certain restorationist groups, we understand that a replication of Jesus’ life is properly restricted to piety and ethics. Progress in biblical scholarship over two millennia has produced little movement on this front. A recent collection of academic essays, Patterns of Discipleship in the New Testament2 continues this tradition without any serious consideration of extending “discipleship” to any other areas of emulating Jesus, particularly to the miraculous.3 “Discipleship remains limited to “piety and ethics,” very much as is our present notion of “spiritual formation.” Because, in traditional theology, Jesus’ unique divinity was accredited by miracles, few Christians seriously attempted to replicate that performance in Jesus’ ministry.
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas a Kempis’S Meditations on the Life of Lord, Let Me Know What I Ought to Know, Love What I Christ
    KNOWING & DOING 1 A Teaching Quarterly for Discipleship of Heart and Mind This article originally appeared in the Summer 2005 issue of Knowing & Doing. C.S. LEWIS INSTITUTE PROFILES IN FAITH Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) Author of history’s most popular devotional classic by Mark Galli, Managing Editor, Christianity Today ir Thomas More, England’s famous lord chancel- In the first treatise, “Useful reminders for the Slor under Henry VIII (and subject of the film A spiritual life,” Thomas lays out the primary require- Man for All Seasons) said it was one of the three ment for the spiritually serious: “We must imitate books everybody ought to own. Ignatius of Loyola, Christ’s life and his ways if we are to be truly en- founder of the Jesuits, read a chapter a day from it lightened and set free from the darkness of our own and regularly gave away copies as gifts. Methodist hearts. Let it be the most important thing we do, founder John Wesley said it was the best summary then, to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ.” of the Christian life he had ever read. The highest virtue, from which all other virtues They were talking about Thomas à Kempis’s The stem, is humility. Thomas bids all to let go of the illu- Imitation of Christ, the devotional classic that has sion of superiority. “If you want to learn something been translated into over 50 languages, in editions that will really help you, learn to see yourself as God too numerous for scholars to keep track of (by 1779 sees you and not as you see yourself in the distorted there were already 1,800 editions).
    [Show full text]
  • Imitation of Christ: the Essence of a Catholic Mindset
    Imitation of Christ: The essence of a Catholic mindset An image of Jesus is seen as Pope Francis greets a young woman during the World Youth Day welcoming ceremony in Blonia Park in Krakow, Poland, July 28. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) My wife and I recently finished watching a series on Netflix. As with any well-written show, I found myself engrossed in the characters and storyline. Throughout the day, I caught myself thinking about the latest plot twist and counting down the hours to when I could watch the next episode. In my last blog post, I wrote that “Catholics no longer think like Catholics. They think like Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, socialists, or secularists, but not as Catholics.” What is the key to restoring a Catholic way of thinking? In short, Catholics must seek to think like Jesus. And for me to think like Jesus, I need to replicate my experience of “binge watching” television shows such as “Lost,” “Downton Abbey,” “Blacklist” or more recently, “Stranger Things” by “binge meditating” on the life of Jesus. In the past, while commuting to work, sending an email, or watching the children, I was reviewing the latest episode of the show in the back of mind. As a Catholic, I need keep the mindfulness of a world beyond our present world, but replace the television show with the life of Jesus. In this process, my life will be less molded by the fictional characters of the newest hit show, and more by the life of Jesus. The concept of imitating Jesus has a rich tradition in Catholicism.
    [Show full text]
  • The Imitation of Christ
    THE IMITATION OF CHRIST By JOHN ASHTON HE PROBLEM I want to tackle in this paper may be put in the following way. What is the point of contemplating or of prayerfully reflecting upon the life and teaching of Christ T as it is portrayed in the gospels? What does the christian hope - or what should he hope - to get out of this exercise? Why cannot he confine himself, as St Paul did, to attempting to assimilate into his own life the central mysteries of the christian message - God's revelation of himself to mankind through the passion, death and resurrection of his Son? St Paul succeeded in finding an answer to the question, What do the passion and resurrection mean to me and to others like me? We are so used to his answer that we tend to underestimate the difficulty of the question. Paul 'interiorized' Christ's passion and death by giving his own life (or recognizing in his own life) what Fr Yarnold has called 'a paschal shape'. By any standards this was an extraordinary intellectual and religious achievement. Why cannot we stop there? Why do we need to go further and enquire about or reflect upon the details of Christ's life ? The question may be put in another way: is it enough to think of Christ as man (as St Paul undoubtedly did), or must we be able to think of him as a man? And perhaps there is a third way of putting it too. Could christianity have dispensed with the synoptic gospels? Would it have been much the poorer, or even the same religion, without them? Some may detect a bultmannian ring in these questions; and they would be right.
    [Show full text]
  • The Imitation of Christ in Medical Missions
    COMMENTARY Humble Thyself: The Imitation of Christ in Medical Missions Danielle Ellisa a MTS, MD(c), University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine, and Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative, Duke Divinity School, Durham NC, USA Abstract Missions have been a part of the Christian faith since its genesis. Various approaches to transmitting the faith through missions have been implemented over time, some with unforeseen and frankly negative, long-term political, social, and even theological consequences. In medical missions, specifically, the consequences include the potential of compromised individual and collective health. These vulnerabilities make it essential to consider the theoretical and practical approaches with which we, as Christians, engage with our neighbors. Missiologists critically and theologically consider the motives, methods, and mandates of the Christian believer in the world. Efforts to reconfigure the role of missions from a past intertwined with imperialism to one that brings each party into partnership are ongoing. In medical missions, questions about how to assume a Christian posture are complicated, not only by the sociohistorical context of the missions movement but also by the fact that medicine in and of itself engenders imbalances in power. This paper puts forth a proposal for a posture in medical missions as understood through the lens of Philippians. In the context of Paul’s mission to this group of early believers, the apostle repeatedly encourages his congregation to imitate Christ. In his letter to the Philippians, he lays out what Christ did and how his followers might hope to be like him. Paul describes Jesus’ wholly countercultural disposition and actions, giving his audience the opportunity to consider how this might inform their own lives.
    [Show full text]
  • The Imitation of Christ
    The Catholic Primer’s Reference Series: THE IMITATION OF CHRIST THOMAS À KEMPIS Caution regarding printing: This document is over 117 pages in length, depending upon individual printer settings. PLEASE NOTE: The original source of this document is in the public domain. The Catholic Primer Copyright Notice The contents The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis is in the public domain. However, this electronic version is copyrighted. © The Catholic Primer, 2004. All Rights Reserved. This electronic version may be distributed free of charge provided that the contents are not altered and this copyright notice is included with the distributed copy, provided that the following conditions are adhered to. This electronic document may not be offered in connection with any other document, product, promotion or other item that is sold, exchange for compensation of any type or manner, or used as a gift for contributions, including charitable contributions without the express consent of The Catholic Primer. Notwithstanding the preceding, if this product is transferred on CD-ROM, DVD, or other similar storage media, the transferor may charge for the cost of the media, reasonable shipping expenses, and may request, but not demand, an additional donation not to exceed US$15. Questions concerning this limited license should be directed to [email protected] . This document may not be distributed in print form without the prior consent of The Catholic Primer. Adobe®, Acrobat®, and Acrobat® Reader® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. The Catholic Primer: www.catholicprimer.org 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.
    [Show full text]
  • Gerrit Gerrits, Acadia University
    GERRIT GERRITS, ACADIA UNIVERSITY A Comparison of Erasmus' Handbook of the Christian Knight with Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ and Gerard Zerbolt's The Spiritual Ascentsl Erasmus' Handbook of the Christian Knight has respective authors. The oldest of the three often been compared to Thomas a Kempis' works is that by Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen Imitation of Christ. 2 However, the construc­ (1367 -l398). Zerbolt was one of the first tion, content and tone of the two works members of the Modern Devotion and may is so different in most respects that one is be regarded as one of its founders, especially hard pressed to find many parallels between when it comes to the movement's spiritual­ them, apart from the fact that both writings ity.6 And what was the Modern Devotion? deal with Christian spirituality.3 Exactly why Briefly, it was the movement for spiritual the comparison is made is not altogether renewal, and to a lesser degree ecclesiastical clear, although one assumes that it is partly renewal, that was founded by Gerard Grote because Erasmus' spirituality is seen by around l380. From its beginnings in De­ many as having been heavily influenced by venter and Zwolle it spread throughout the that of the Modern Devotion,4 and Thomas Low Countries and much of Germany, and a Kempis' Imitation of Christ is commonly into Switzerland and northern France. From regarded as the most representative work of an institutional perspective, the Modern De­ Devotionalist spirituality. 5 It will be argued votion consisted of two separate branches: here, however, that rather than compar- the semi-monastic branch known as the ing the Handbook to the Imitation, it is more Brothers and the Sisters of the Common Life, instructive and revealing to compare the for­ and the monastic branch represented by the mer to Gerard Zerbolt's The Spiritual Ascents.
    [Show full text]