An absolutely powerful book to listen to. Had to buy a physical copy because I need to read it again with a highlighter in hand.

"The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas à Kempis had been on my TBR list for a long time: I kept putting off reading it because I felt intimidated; maybe I also questioned how much a book published almost 600 years ago had to tell me.
When I finally got around to tackling it, I found it surprisingly approachable and relevant to my twenty-first-century day-to-day life!
My favourite quotes from the book are:

"Dreams of happiness expected from change and different places have deceived many."

and

"Praise adds nothing to your holiness, nor does blame take anything from it."

I can definitely recommend this book to anyone, Christian or not, who wishes to reflect on their value system and live a better, more fulfilling life.

Het boek had gisteren geschreven kunnen zijn.
Wel een opgave, hoor, om een goed mens te zijn ...

I have never read the original Imitation of Christ. I may have read excerpts at some point, but I am not even sure I did that. A book that old just scared me away. But now we have this updated version in today's language.

I have no idea how the original book was set up, but this is separated into two sections:
1) Imitating Christ
2) Imitating Christ's character

The first section is rather short, only having five parts and taking up just nineteen pages. The second section is split up into fifteen different character traits of Christ, with a varying amount of daily readings under each trait.

I found the readings very easy to read and very relevant to my life. Several different topics are addressed throughout the book, and I can relate to most or all of them. Since I never read the original, I cannot attest to how closely the editor stayed to the original, but I can attest that the end result is worth reading. It is split up into 90 daily readings, and would make a great devotional for a three month period or more.

Pretty fascinating examination of the Christian faith in practical terms. I only wish the writing was a bit less repetitive. However I cannot hold that against Kempis, as he was a monk with a practice of repetitive writing and intentional practice.

"The royal road of the cross" is what has been most impactful from this classic work that I must come back to again, to sit on it longer and more patiently as it deserves, as God deserves.

Absolutely fascinating to read. I certainly don’t align with some of the theological positions, specifically how negative the author is towards humanity, but it is certainly powerful and inspirational.

I don't know what to say. I thought this would be right up my alley, but I think I got the wrong translation. The translation I had seemed like it added far, FAR too much modern jargon, and as if every single sentence was turned into a bad metaphor or turn of phrase that comes strait from a modern day street (that I've never lived on). It was almost like it was trying to simplify it too much.

Ugh.

If you really like that kind of flow, then I have no doubt that this book would be a good one for you. My recommendation; read a few paragraphs of the text to get an idea how the translator handled the text.

Me? I like my authors dead my a century, and their text as close to the original that the translation can allow.

Otherwise some of the points he made were good, solid and interesting. But so much was lost in how the book read, I wouldn't be able to comment more on the ideas.