PDF Summary:The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas à Kempis

Living a spiritual life can feel overwhelming when worldly distractions compete for your attention. In The Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis offers guidance on how to model your life after Jesus Christ through divine grace, humility, and detachment from material concerns. He explains that grace is a gift from God that enables you to perform virtuous works and resist temptation, while humility opens your heart to receive this grace.

Kempis describes how rejecting worldly attachments leads to a deeper relationship with God and discusses the importance of embracing suffering as part of spiritual growth. He also provides practical advice on cultivating inner peace, relinquishing personal will, and dedicating yourself fully to God. This summary explores Kempis's teachings on achieving spiritual freedom through self-denial and active devotion.

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Practical Paths to Imitation

Kempis suggests that to imitate Jesus, you must embrace the crucifix and its challenges. The cross is always present in life, and it's unavoidable. If you bear it willingly, it will lead you to your goal. Carrying it reluctantly will make it a burden. If you abandon one burden, you'll discover another, maybe even more difficult. No mortal can avoid the cross, and even Jesus Christ suffered its pain.

(Shortform note: In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl writes that “in some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.” In other words, when you choose to bear a burden, you change your story about it. Instead of being a victim of your circumstances, you become the hero of your own story, and the burden becomes a part of your journey toward your goal.)

As you advance spiritually, the burden will feel heavier. However, you won't lack hope because you're aware that by bearing your cross, you'll receive a significant reward. The greater your suffering, the more divine favor will fortify your spirit. Relying on God will grant you heavenly strength. Armed with faith and the symbol of the cross, you won't fear the devil. Prepare yourself to endure numerous difficulties and hardships throughout this challenging life. The only way to escape the troubles and pains of life is to endure them.

(Shortform note: The author says that the only way to escape the troubles and pains of life is to endure them, but he doesn’t explain how this works. In The Happiness Trap, Russ Harris explains that the more you struggle to get rid of unwanted thoughts and feelings, the more influence they have over your life. But when you stop fighting them, allow them to be there, and gently refocus your energy on taking meaningful action guided by your values, they tend to lose their grip on you and occupy far less of your inner world.)

Next, Kempis advises you to relinquish personal will to achieve freedom and tranquility. To have inner freedom, you must entirely reject your selfhood, inside and out. This means relinquishing your desires, your belongings, and your attachments. Only by doing this can you truly belong to Jesus and find peace. If you hold back anything, you won't achieve the genuine freedom of a heart that is pure or the blessing of friendship with Christ. You must wholly resign and sacrifice yourself every day. If you lack this, no lasting and fruitful connection to Christ is possible.

(Shortform note: In some situations, the advice to “entirely reject your selfhood, inside and out” can be harmful. For example, in relationships marked by coercion or psychological abuse, this advice can reinforce the abuser’s control over the victim. Abusers often manipulate their victims into believing that their own needs, desires, and identities are unimportant or even wrong. When a victim is told to completely reject their selfhood, it can make them more susceptible to the abuser’s influence, making it harder for them to recognize the abuse and seek help. In these cases, encouraging self-assertion and self-care is often more beneficial for the victim’s well-being and safety.)

You must trust in Jesus without hesitation. Then you will have Him and be liberated in your heart. You won't be overwhelmed by darkness, and you'll be free of all selfishness. Useless fantasies, malicious disruptions, and needless worries will disappear. Excessive fear and undue love will fade, letting you reflect on celestial matters and feel joy inside.

(Shortform note: For Christians who suffer from mental illness, trusting in Jesus without hesitation may not always have the effects Thomas à Kempis describes. For example, people with major depression may experience inner darkness and useless fantasies even if they trust in Jesus. This is because their brains are not functioning properly.)

Kempis offers further guidance on cultivating inner peace and focusing on your spiritual growth.

Inner Cultivation of the Heart

Kempis encourages you to cultivate inner peace and being humble. Inner peace comes from modesty and perseverance. You can cultivate humility by reflecting on your own sins and your distance from the saints' perfection. You can cultivate patience by accepting God's will in everything, whether positive or negative.

(Shortform note: The Devotio Moderna movement emphasized the importance of the interior life, focusing on personal spiritual development and inner transformation. Practices like reflecting on your own sins, your distance from the saints' perfection, and accepting God's will in everything were daily disciplines for reshaping the interior life.)

He also advises focusing on personal spiritual growth. Doing so will make you less disturbed by the actions of others. To achieve this, avoid getting involved in other people’s business.

(Shortform note: This advice may not apply in situations where you could prevent harm by getting involved. For example, if you see someone being bullied, it may be better to intervene than to mind your own business.)

He describes the importance of experiencing divine favor and practicing active devotion.

Experiencing Divine Grace

Kempis describes divine grace as a gift from God that helps you overcome your sinful nature. It’s a supernatural light that elevates you beyond the material world and instills a love for heavenly things. It transforms a person from carnality to spirituality. As you increasingly conquer your nature, you're given more grace. Each day, your inner self is renewed through new visits, reflecting God's image. Grace is a unique gift, a true sign of those chosen by God and a promise of eternal salvation. It's essential for redemption and overcoming your sinful nature. You need God’s grace to resist the flesh's desires.

(Shortform note: Kempis’s description of divine grace reflects a long tradition of Western Christian theology, particularly the influence of Augustine of Hippo. Augustine’s writings on grace were pivotal in shaping the Christian understanding of the concept. Augustine argued that humans are inherently sinful and incapable of achieving salvation through their own efforts. He emphasized that grace is a free and unmerited gift from God, necessary for overcoming sin and attaining salvation. This view became central to Western Christianity, influencing debates on free will, predestination, and the nature of salvation for centuries.)

Kempis explains that sin has caused nature to be corrupted and weakened, and this blemish has affected all humanity. The very nature that God made well and virtuous is seen as emblematic of vice and frailty, because on its own, it inclines toward evil. The remaining strength resembles a tiny ember covered by ashes. That strength is inherent reason, which, engulfed in deep darkness, can still discern good from evil. However, it cannot accomplish everything it endorses and doesn't fully benefit from truth's light or healthy emotions.

(Shortform note: Kempis’s view of human nature is bleak, and he doesn’t offer much evidence to support his claims. However, in Willpower, Roy Baumeister and John Tierney argue that the main problem in self-control is not ignorance about what is right or best, but the failure to act on what one already knows and has chosen. Their review of laboratory and field experiments on willpower shows that, after people exert self-control in one domain, they become more likely to go against their own considered judgments in the next.)

Internally, you find joy in divine law, understanding that its decrees are virtuous, fair, and sacred, and demonstrate the need to avoid wrongdoing and transgression. But your fleshly nature leads you to act sinfully, driven by physical desires rather than rational thought. You want to do good, but don't know how to make it happen. You frequently suggest lots of positive ideas, but without grace to support your weakness, you shrink back and quit at the smallest challenge.

(Shortform note: The Imitation was written in the context of the Devotio Moderna, a late-medieval movement that sought to renew Christian life through personal piety, humility, and communal living. In Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life, John van Engen explains that the movement emerged in the late 14th century in the Netherlands, where urban laypeople and clergy, disillusioned with the church’s hierarchy and scholasticism, sought a more earnest and practical form of Christian life.)

You understand the path to perfection and have clarity about how you should behave, but because your own flaws weigh you down, you don't reach greater heights.

(Shortform note: In The Willpower Instinct, Kelly McGonigal suggests that when you feel overwhelmed by how far you have to go, the most powerful willpower strategy is to pick one small, specific action you can take immediately—ideally in the next few minutes—write it down as an "I will" statement, and then do just that one thing.)

You need God's grace to initiate any righteous action, to continue it, and to complete it. Without grace, your accomplishments mean nothing, and no natural gifts are to be valued. No arts or riches, no beauty or strength, no wit or intelligence avail without grace. The blessings of nature are available to everyone, regardless of character, but those chosen by God uniquely receive grace and love, and are marked as deserving eternal life. Without grace, the ability to prophesy or perform miracles, and even meditation, are meaningless. The divine doesn't accept faith, hope, or any other virtues without charity and grace. Grace enriches those with a humble spirit in virtues, and it causes people with abundant good things to be humble.

Kant’s Perspective on the Moral Value of Human Accomplishments

Immanuel Kant, in his Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, argues that even without God’s grace, natural gifts like intelligence, talents, and achievements can have genuine moral worth when governed by a good will acting from rational duty. He contends that these qualities, when directed by an autonomous moral will, contribute to moral goodness independently of divine intervention. Kant’s perspective challenges the view that human accomplishments are meaningless without grace, suggesting instead that moral value arises from the rational exercise of free will. He explains that a good will, guided by reason and duty, can transform natural talents and achievements into morally valuable actions, demonstrating that human efforts can possess intrinsic worth apart from divine grace.

Active Spiritual Practices

Kempis encourages you to actively offer your life to God with sincerity and devotion. God wants you to dedicate yourself to Him completely. If you hold back your agency, what you offer will be partial, and your union with God will lack perfection. If you want freedom and enlightenment, you must renounce yourself entirely and offer your entire heart to God.

(Shortform note: Kempis’s advice to “renounce yourself entirely” and “not hold back your agency” can be dangerous if taken to the extreme. In Boundaries, Henry Cloud and John Townsend argue that healthy relationships require clear boundaries. If you believe that you must give up all your agency to God, you may become vulnerable to spiritual abuse.)