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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 � 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 � 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
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