The Imitation of Christ: A New Reading of the 1441 Latin Autograph Manuscript

Dr. Bill Creasy's superb translation of The Imitation of Christ "is not merely a good translation of The Imitation, but a great one."

Rev. Dennis J. Billy, Robert F. Leavitt Distinguished Service Professor of Theology,  St. Mary's Seminary and University

 
Thomas a Kempis's The Imitation of Christ has been published in more languages and more editions than any other book except the Bible.  It has been universally praised as a major devotional work for over half a millennium:
 
 

•  St. Thomas More praised The Imitation of Christ as one of three books every Christian should read

 
 

• Sanuel Johnson remarked to Boswell that The Imjitation "must be a good book, as the world has opened its arms to receive it"

 
 

• Thomas Carlyle wrote "no book, I believe, except the Bible, has been so universally read and loved by Christians of all tongues and sects

 
 

• George Eliot wrote that The Imitation's "piety has its foundations in the depth of the divine-human soul"

 
 

• Thomas De Quincey praised The Imitation's "slender rivulets of truth silently stealing away into light"

 
 

• Matthew Arnold called it "the most exquisite document, after the New Testament, of all the documents the Christian spirit has ever inspired

 
Dr. Creasy translated Thomas a Kempis's The Imitation of Christ from the 1441 Latin manuscript in Thomas's own handwriting.  It is in the Bibliotheque Royale in Brussels,     MS 5855-61.
  
Dr. Creasy's award-winning translation has become the standard translation of this spiritual classic, now in its third edition.

William C. Creasy teaches in the department of English (writing programs) at the University of California, Los Angelos.