Thomas à Kempis

Thomas à Kempis was an Augustinian canon at Mount St Agnes near Zwolle, in the movement of renewal called the Devotio Moderna — “modern devotion,” which prized heartfelt, practical holiness over speculation.

The little book he is remembered for, The Imitation of Christ, has been read and loved for six centuries. Its spirituality is interior and unadorned: humility over cleverness, a felt love of God over fine words.

Much of it is written as a dialogue between the disciple and Christ. “What does it profit you,” it asks, “to discourse profoundly on the Trinity, if you lack humility?” — better to feel compunction than to define it.