The Imitation of Christ
The Imitation of Christ

Author: Thomas A. Kempis

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2000-11-21

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 0060634006

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The Imitation of Christ is the work of at least three men: Gerard Groote, Florent Radewijns, and Thomas a Kempis. The first two 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. Working on their manuscripts, first as a compiler and editor and then as a coauthor, was Kempis. So successful were Kempis's efforts that the work became the golden treasury not only of their community but also of the contemporary spirituality movement known as the Modern Devotion. Its prescriptions might very well be known as the Perennial Devotion for its continual appeal through the centuries. In its fifteenth century Latin original the Imitation was not a silken cord of consecutive prose. Rather it was a series of scratchings, the sort that a spiritual director would note down in preparation for sermons and addresses. What wasn't always in the original was exactly how Kempis developed each topic sentence or wisdom quotation as he delivered it. In this new rendition William Griffin recovers the original experience of listening to Kempis as he taught and preached to his spiritual charges. Using a variety of literary and historical means, Griffin enhances the original, making the insights of this seminal exposition of Christian life more accessible.

The Imitation of Christ
The Imitation of Christ

Author: Thomas A' Kempis

Publisher: Ignatius Press

Published: 2013-07-25

Total Pages: 259

ISBN-13: 1681492547

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The spiritual classic by À Kempis, the second most widely read spiritual book after the Bible, has had an astonishing impact on the spiritual lives of countless saints, peasants, and popes for centuries. Even today, the soul-searching words of the fifteenth-century cleric Thomas À Kempis continue to resonate, unbounded by time or geography. Drawing on the Bible, the Fathers of the early Church and medieval mysticism, his four-part treatise shrugs off the allure of the material world, blending beauty and bluntness in a supremely spiritual call-to-arms. This beautiful translation by Ronald Knox and Michael Oakley is considered by many teachers, writers, and readers to be the best English translation ever, and one that greatly enhances the life-changing insights of Thomas À Kempis. Illustrated. "If we could construct a composite picture of all great Christians-Catholic or non-Catholic-of the last five hundred years who found The Imitation substantially beneficial, enlightening, and inspiring, we would need no further proof that familiarity with this great classic is an integral part of a mature spiritual life and even a path to holiness." -Father Benedict J. Groeschel, C.F.R., Author,

Catholic and Protestant Translations of the Imitatio Christi, 1425–1650
Catholic and Protestant Translations of the Imitatio Christi, 1425–1650

Author: Mr Maximilian von Habsburg

Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published: 2013-07-28

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 1409482642

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The Imitatio Christi is considered one of the classic texts of Western spirituality. There were 800 manuscript copies and more than 740 different printed editions of the Imitatio between its composition in the fifteenth century and 1650. During the Reformation period, the book retained its popularity with both Protestants and Catholics; with the exception of the Bible it was the most frequently printed book of the sixteenth century. In this pioneering study, the remarkable longevity of the Imitatio across geographical, chronological, linguistic and confessional boundaries is explored. Rather than attributing this enduring popularity to any particular quality of universality, this study suggests that its key virtue was its appropriation by different interest groups. That such an apparently Catholic and monastic work could be adopted and adapted by both Protestant reformers and Catholic activists (including the Jesuits) poses intriguing questions about our understanding of Reformation and Counter Reformation theology and confessional politics. This study focuses on the editions of the Imitatio printed in English, French, German and Latin between the 1470s and 1650. It offers an ambitious and comprehensive survey of the process of translation and its impact and contribution to religious culture. In so doing it offers a fresh analysis of spirituality and devotion within their proper late medieval and early modern contexts. It also demonstrates that spirituality was not a peripheral dimension of religion, but remains at the very heart of both Catholic and Protestant self-perception and identity.

Juvencus' Four Books of the Gospels
Juvencus' Four Books of the Gospels

Author: Scott McGill

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-05-20

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1317296613

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Juvencus’ Evangeliorum libri IV, or "The Four Books of the Gospels," is a verse rendering of the gospel narrative written ca. 330 CE. Consisting of around 3200 hexameter lines, it is the first of the Latin "Biblical epics" to appear in antiquity, and the first classicizing, hexameter poem on a Christian topic to appear in the western tradition. As such, it is an important text in literary and cultural history. This is the first English translation of the entire poem. The lack of a full English translation has kept many scholars and students, particularly those outside of Classics, and many educated general readers from discovering it. With a thorough introduction to aid in the interpretation and appreciation of the text this clear and accessible English translation will enable a clearer understanding of the importance of Juvencus’ work to later Latin poetry and to the early Church.

The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola
The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Author: Terence O'Reilly

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-10-20

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 9004429751

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In The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola: Contexts, Sources, Reception, Terence O’Reilly examines the historical, theological and literary contexts in which the Exercises took shape. The collected essays have as their common theme the early history of the Spiritual Exercises, and the interior life of Ignatius Loyola to which they give expression. The traditional interpretation of the Exercises was shaped by writings composed in the late sixteenth century, reflecting the preoccupations of the Counter-Reformation world in which they were composed. The Exercises, however, belong, in their origins, to an earlier period, before the Council of Trent, and the full recognition of this fact, and of its implications, has confronted modern scholars with fresh questions about the sources, evolution, and reception of the work.

Against Jovinianus
Against Jovinianus

Author: St. Jerome

Publisher: Dalcassian Publishing Company

Published: 2019-12-07

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 1987022882

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Jovinianus, about whom little more is known than what is to be found in Jerome's treatise, published a Latin treatise outlining several opinions: That a virgin is no better, as such, than a wife in the sight of God. Abstinence from food is no better than a thankful partaking of food. A person baptized with the Spirit as well as with water cannot sin. All sins are equal. There is but one grade of punishment and one of reward in the future state. In addition to this, he held the birth of Jesus Christ to have been by a "true parturition," and was thus refuting the orthodoxy of the time, according to which, the infant Jesus passed through the walls of the womb as his Resurrection body afterwards did, out of the tomb or through closed doors.

The Imitation of Mary
The Imitation of Mary

Author: Thomas À Kempis

Publisher:

Published: 2020-04-18

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 9781621385288

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Readers of The Imitation of Christ have sometimes asked why Thomas à Kempis does not mention the Blessed Virgin in his magnificent work. The present book is an answer to their question, compiled from his many devotional writings about her. In its selections it is unique, preserving the poetic heart of its author better than other edited works.