The Inner Life

This wonderful book was written by the priest Thomas a Kempis in the 1400's and is very reminecient of the Apostle Paul's writings by encouraging readers to live a simple spiritual life. It recommends that peace is found in the heart of the humble and that in overcoming the ego you overcome the world. Joy is found in a quiet conscience and you are only happy when you have done what is right. This may also be the original source of the advice to choose the less of two evils. It also warns that pleasure and desire carry the seeds of sorrow. This book is spiritual focusing on living the inner life and not getting entangled with the world. A must read for all Christians or anyone on a spiritual path. This book is really a remake of the classic "The Imitation of Christ" without the last two chapters of Book III and it does not contain Book IV Sacraments of the altar. I personally think that it does not take away from the book and more condenses it to Kempis's best work of his first three writings that apply more to common people.

This book is one of the best books that I've read in a while. It reasons with philosophy from a religious perspective. I'm not a religious person and I appreciate his views on morality and life. So far, it's second only to Seneca.

To characterize this book as a "literary classic" ignores the fact that it was never intended to be read as great literature. Rather, it was written for the sole purpose of offering simple instruction to cloistered monks on how to know God, and as such, the spiritual wisdom contained here will surely cause any reader to pause in quiet contemplation of his or her own life in relation to God. "It is vanity to wish for long life, if you care little for a good life" (p. 2). "A true understanding and humble estimate of oneself is the highest and most valuable of all lessons" (p. 3). "It is good for us to encounter troubles and adversities from time to time, for trouble often compels a man to search his own heart" (p.12). "Today a man is here; tomorrow he is gone. And when he is out of sight, he is soon out of mind . . . You should order your every deed and thought, as though today were the day of your death . . . Foolish man, how can you promise yourself a long life, when you are not certain of a single day" (pp. 18-21). "Keep yourself a stranger and pilgrim upon earth, to whom the affairs of this world are of no concern" (p. 22). Best known for THE IMITATION OF CHRIST, Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471) was a medieval Augustinian monk and a mystic, educated by the Brethren of the Common Life, and influenced by Geert Groote. He spent his quiet life in cloistered devotion to God, reading and writing, and copying the Bible. His writings (including tracts, meditations, letters, sermons, a life of Saint Lydewigis, and several biographies) reflect his humble nature and total adoration of Christ. He encourages his reader to "read with humility, simplicity, and faith, and seek not at any time the fame of being learned." It's easy to guess what his reaction would be if Thomas a Kempis knew that his book is now being read by the modern reader as an experience ib "classic" literature. As a meditation on the spiritual life, this book offers guidance on renouncing worldly vanities and materialism, and living more like Christ, the singular goal of Christian life. "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity, except to love God and serve Him alone," Thomas a Kempis writes; "and this is supreme wisdom--to despise the world, and draw daily nearer the kingdom of heaven" (p. 2). As Job discovered, man's life on earth is little more than spiritual warfare (p. 13). While this book will appeal to anyone interested in what it means to live a meaningful life, it was clearly written with a cloistered Christian audience in mind. (It should be noted that this review refers to the 2005 Penguin Great Ideas edition of THE INNER LIFE, which is an excerpt from the 1952 Leo Sherly-Price translation of THE IMITATION OF CHRIST.) G. Merritt