This book was used even by many Protestants for centuries and is still used by some today. That's a testament to the importance of this book for the process of purifying one's heart so that it becomes a Godly castle. I prefer this reading to some newer ones.

The Roman Catholic Church, like the Orthodox Church (I hope I haven't offended traditionalists in both churches, but I still really like both!) has produced lovers of God who write excellent books based on their experience. Thomas a'Kempis is certainly one of these lovers of God. Sir Thomas More, the Martyr who was canonized a saint by the RCC once said that The Imitation of Christ is one of three books that everyone ought to own,

Some traditional Roman Catholics have complained that Tan Books has made small changes in its books to conform to post-Vatican II viewpoints not held by the RCC before that council. If that criticism is true, I don't know if The Imitation of Christ has had changes made to the text, or not.

To be fair, I will give my religious background. I was born into a Roman Catholic family, did not begin regularly attending Mass because of age until 1967, when I made my First Holy Communion. Even though the English Mass of the time had some dubiously translated phrases which of course I was unaware of at the time, I remember I was quite disappointed with the changes. I did not like the three new Eucharistic Prayers, and the Confiteor that I had loved to pray as a child was, in my own words, "ruined". My father left the Church at the first sight of a Folk Mass in 1969 (I believe), because the massive changes had led him to wonder if the Chuch had become "phoney". Yet, he still sent us children to Catholic Schools. I fell under the spell of "Indepentant Fundamentalist Baptists" at age 17 because Mass and Church had lost its "magic", I suppose. Only staying with them for only a year, I didn't return to "Church" until 1985, when a Pentecostal Holiness church convinced me that the "once saved always saved" doctrine of those fundamentalist Baptists was a heresy, and I really did want to get as close as I could to God (as far as my limited understanding would let me). However, after attending their Bible school which trained up ministers, missionaries, and church workers, I slowly began to read Church History (though not those written by Catholics or Orthodox). Reading about the controversy between Augustine and Pelagius, with John Cassian in the middle, it seemed a bit like the argument between Reformed (Calvinist) Christians and Arminian Christians on the other. I came out on the side of John Cassian in the older argument (with no disrespect to Augustine of Hippo), so that put me in the camp with Hugo Grotius, the New Haven and New School Evangelicals of the 2nd Great Awakening, and Charles Grandison Finney, who the Reformed (Calvinist) Christians labeled a Pelagian, but who infact believed "it is difficult to be saved with the Holy Spirit and impossible to be saved" without the Holy Spirit, as stated in the introduction to his first sermon in his book "Lectures on the Revival of Religion". That sounded like Eastern Christian spirituality to me. So I returned to the Roman Catholic Church in 1995, attending mostly the ExtraordinaryWestern Rite and The Byzantine Ruthenian Rite, as well as visiting Russian Orthodox parishes. However ...

Three years later I became a 12er Shia Muslim. That came from reading a translation of the Quran from the first time, and reading the classic Sufi Muslims (like Al Ghazali , who the great Thomas Aquinas read, and Rumi), then learning that most Sufis traced their lineage back to the Prophet through Ali Ibn Talib, the cousin of the Prophet who married the Prophet's daughter Fatima, was the 1st Imam of the 12er and other Shia Muslim groups and the 4th and last Rightly Guided Caliph of the Sunnis. After the murder of Ali Ibn Talib by a Khawarjite leader for essentialy fighting only defensive wars per the Quran rather than offensive wars as the first three Caliphs did, and the murder of Ali's second son Hussain, the 3rd Imam, at Karbala, by 2nd Ummayad Caliph, no Imam of the 12 ever sought political power, yet all except the last one were murdered by the Caliphs, who persecuted Shia and Sunni scholars alike. In fact, there would be no Sunni or Shia Muslims if Hussain had not been martyred for the faith.

Lastly, I don't care if Christians say "heretic, apostate," and etc, because I love good Christians nonetheless. I'm not trying to convert anyone, either. I became a 12er Shia Muslim because it solved doctrinal problem for me personally. I'd have been a hypocrite if I had stayed Christian. However, I love both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians, and yes, I like traditional Anglicans confessional Lutherans, too, though I may not like their traditions as much. That goes the same for the original Old Order Baptists and Mennonites, and the traditional Reformed Baptists who have a Covenantal rather than a Dispentational view of church history and eschatology, because they never forced anyone to their Christian traditions. Remember, when the Safavid Emperor (Persia/Iran) became a 12er Shia Muslim, he and Charles V the Roman Emperor formed an alliance against the Turkish Caliphate, whose Caliph hated the Hapsburgs but would have allied with Protestants who broke from the Holy Roman Empire. The Vatican and Iran have had close diplomatic ties ever since. The Vatican likes Iran, even if Fox News Catholics don't. This didn't change with Vatican II, either.

However, I'm an American of Italian and German heritage. I honor the 12 Patriarchs of Jacob/Israel, the 12 Princes of Ishmael, the 12 Apostles of Jesus Christ (and the 12er Shia Muslims name 2 - Simon Peter and James the "brother" i.e. cousin of Jesus Christ), and the 12 Imams of Muhammad. For 12er Shia Muslims, all Prophets, Messengers and Imams (which include the 4 groups of 12 above) are protected from sin and given religious infallibility by the power of God. For many 12er Shia Muslims, the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Prophet (after all, the Angel Gabriel spoke with her). Thus, I agree with Roman Catholics on the doctrines of the Infallibility of Simon Peter and the Immaculate Conceptions of both, though I agree with the Orthodox of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and on the doctrine that humans are not born guilty, though they have sinful tendencies.

We ought to imitate the pure ones, the infallibles. So, I also agree with Thomas a'Kempis that Christ should be imitated. Since the Shiekhs I know are not bothered that I read this book from time to time, why should I stop?

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The Imitation of Christ (Dover Thrift Editions)