Twelve Things You May Not Know About Thomas a Kempis and The Imitation of Christ

One of my favorite books is The Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis. I first read this during my days at Trinity and I immediately fell in love with it. A couple of times a year I pull it off the shelf and read portions of it and with every reading I come away enriched. Yesterday we received in the store a new book from Paraclete Press called The Complete Imitation of Christ. This is not only a fresh translation of this classic but it also contains a wonderful introduction to the book and to the man. Many who have read this time-honored classic have never read anything about its author. Fr. John-Julian does a masterful job of introducing the book and Thomas. The format of this edition features the text of The Imitation of Christ on the right side of the page with commentary on the left side of the page. As I perused some of the commentary I realized there is so much more to this book then I ever knew and now many of those gaps will be filled in for me. This will be a book I will take my time in reading and, no doubt, savor every page. As I read through the introduction I listed twelve things I thought some of my readers may not be aware of about Thomas and his classic. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Thomas Kempis was Catholic – For many this is common knowledge but for many Protestants this is not known.
2. Thomas was “part of a group formally charged with heresy on two occasions.”
3. The Imitation of Christ was not written solely by Thomas. Fr. Julian believes that Thomas did edit, compile, and partially author the work as we know it today but that it was probably written by three different authors: Thomas, Gerhard Groote and Florens Radewyns. There have been as many as thirty-five different authors suggested for the work.
4. There are over 6,000 editions of the Imitation of Christ. That’s more than one edition per month for over five hundred years.
5. The Imitation of Christ “has been published more often and read more widely than any other book in history except the Bible itself.”
6. Thomas’s family name was Hamerken.
7. The “a” in a Kempis is Latin for “from” and, if used, should never be accented. Thomas signed his own copy of the Imitation of Christ simply Thomas Kempis.
8. Thomas copied the entire Vulgate Bible. It took him sixteen years to complete.
9. “During his monastic life, Thomas wrote thirty-one books, treatises, and articles including a chronicle of his monastery and several biographies. . . . He also left behind him three manuscripts of sermons, a number of letters, some hymns and, of course, the famous The Imitation of Christ.
10. In 1471, just before his death, he had the joy of seeing his The Imitation of Christ published by Günther Zainer at Augsburg. This was one of the earliest books ever printed.
11. At least two attempts have been made to canonize Thomas (once in 1655 and once in 1911) but both have failed.
12. Thomas may have been buried alive. “The most bizarre (but entirely consistent) legend had it that when Thomas’s remains were discovered in 1672, it was found that the inside of the coffin lid was covered with scratches and there were splinters of wood under the fingernails of the corpse . . .” (439n73)

The Complete Imitation of Christ by Fr. John-Julian is from Paraclete Press. It is a paperback with 400 pages and sells for $29.99.

 

Book Give Away

I had so much fun with last week’s book give away I decided to do another this week. I’m excited about this round’s selection including one that is hot off the press. Same rules as always. Leave your name in the comments section with your order of preference. One entry per person. Eligible entries must be in by Friday, May 25th 6:00 am EST. International entries are welcome. (I’ve had four winners from Australia!) Here’s the lineup.  We’ll start with the one we just got in the store. I haven’t had time to look at it closely enough but it looks good. But hey, it’s Baker Academic. What’s not to like?

Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianity by Robin M. Jensen (Baker Academic)

A Liturgy of Grief by Leslie C. Allen (Baker Academic)

7 Truths that Changed the World by Kenneth Richard Samples (Baker Books)

Becoming Whole and Holy by Jeannine Brown, Carla M. Dahl, Wyndy Corbin Reuschling (Baker Academic)

 

RC Sproul Interviews DA Carson

Here’s a great interview of DA Carson by RC Sproul. Enjoy!

 

 

Dan Wallace Discusses Recent New Testament Manuscript Discovery

In this video Dan Wallace discusses the recent discovery of seven New Testament manuscripts. All of these are less than a leaf so they are not very long but the dating is what is extraordinary. If Dan’s estimations prove correct these could be some of the earliest extant manuscripts. He says they have seven total: one from Matthew, one from Luke, one from Mark and four from Paul (one from Hebrews, one from 1 Corinthians and one from Romans). If the dating is right all four of these Pauline manuscripts will be older than our oldest current manuscript which is P46 (dated around 200). The highlight of this discovery is the Markan fragment which could be as early as first century. The Luke fragment could be as old as P52 (a fragment of John 18) which is dated between 100 -150. A book will be released some time in 2013 from E. J. Brill.

HT: In Christ Jesus

 

“Apostle Peter and the Last Supper” – A Video Review

Our music buyer once again has asked me to watch a film and to offer my thoughts on it. Last night I watched Apostle Peter and the Last Supper from Pure Flix Entertainment. The story is set in AD 67 and Peter is in prison awaiting execution. One of his guards, Martinian, starts asking questions under the guise that his wife is curious about this cult. Peter tells this young guard about the life of Jesus and his experience with him. Martinian wants to know about Jesus’ last days and in particular his death. Peter recounts these events with a particular emphasis on the last supper. Martinian is at first perplexed by some of the actions of Jesus (i.e., the washing of feet and forgiving Judas) but then starts to gain a deeper understanding. Little does Martinian know but the other guard, Processus, is listening from outside the cell. The movie ends with both guards “accepting” Jesus and “receiving Jesus” as their savior (complete with praying a “sinner’s prayer). Even though they both become believers they deliver Peter to those who will execute him. In the final scene when the chief guard demands Peter be bound and prepared for execution he asks who it is that is taking his cell. A guard responds that it is Saul of Tarsus. Martin Hengel in his book Saint Peter notes “The tradition passed on by the church in connection with these two great teachers of the early church place their death at roughly the same time and in the same city, as those who gave their witness to the point of death. (98-99) The movie does not show the crucifixion of Peter but during the dialogue Peter does say he is “not worthy to die in the same manner” as Jesus. This tradition comes from The Acts of Peter which Michael Grant says “did not necessarily adhere to historical fact” but that it added “that Peter insisted on being crucified upside down, so as not to compete with Jesus.” (Saint Peter, 153)

My thoughts.

The movie is a bit slow but I found myself drawn into the dialogue and thought that conversations like this must certainly have taken place among guards and Christians. There are a couple of chronological problems the worst being Jesus asking Peter “who do people say that I am” upon Peter’s first encounter with him. Some of Jesus’ words which took place at the Last Supper are set in the garden after the supper. When Jesus is betrayed in the garden there is no sign of Judas. There is an interesting segment during the supper scene when after Jesus announces one of the twelve will betray him we see the thoughts and inner doubts of seven of those as they search themselves wondering if it could one of them. This is no doubt inspired by Matthew 26:22, “And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, ‘Is it I, Lord?’”  This was beautifully done (though speculative) in showing that when faced with the truth of the Lord’s words each man had to examine himself and could not be sure they were not the one. One final thought–the movie advances little beyond DaVinci’s portrait of the Last Supper. Though the movie has the disciples sitting in a u-shaped table I think scholars have pretty much given up on the notion that there was any kind of table as we see pictured in the movie. Most scholars believe the disciples and Jesus were reclining on the floor as they ate. The table would have been much lower to the floor. Something more like this:

But these are minor problems if you allow for a certain amount of license for film purposes. This would be a great movie for small groups to watch and discuss. Some will complain that the ending is hokey.  But why should this be? I’m sure there were guards who became Christians as a result of conversations with their prisoners. The film does not explore the fate of these two guards. The film is, however, a reminder that the power of the gospel can break through the toughest of hearts.

 

And the Winners Are . . .

The winners for our last book give away are

1) Victor Martinez – Victor will get his first choice which was Turning to God by Wells

2) David Morgan – David will also get his first choice which was The Most Misused Versus in the Bible by Bargerhuff

3) Brian – Brian will receive his second choice which was The Later New Testament Writings and Scripture by Moyise

4) Heinrich – Heinrich will receive his second choice which was The Gospel According to Mark by Moloney

Congratulations to our winners and thanks to all who participated. This really was a fun round with no one receiving anything below their second choice. I love it when that happens.

 

In Store Now – “The Eternal Generation of the Son” by Kevin Giles

I’m reading Kevin Giles’ new book The Eternal Generation of the Son. I’ve been eagerly waiting for this book because I’ve always held to this doctrine in spite of the encouragement of some of my favorite authors (including three of my former professors at Trinity) to abandon it. Giles sees the move to expunge the doctrine from the modern creedal formulations as a serious error. He could not be clearer when he states that removing the clause “eternally begotten of the Father” from the creeds “opens the door to the Arian error and excludes what the Nicene fathers inserted to safeguard the two absolutely essential elements in the Nicene trinitarian doctrine of God: the full divinity of the Son and his distinct personal identity as the Son of the Father.” (27) So who wants to get rid of this doctrine? I’ve assembled a chart showing who wants to eliminate the doctrine and those who advocate keeping it.

Let’s Get Rid of It	Let’s Keep It
J. Oliver Buswell   Lorraine Boettner Walter Martin Wayne Grudem Bruce Ware John S. Feinberg Millard Erickson Robert Reymond Paul Helm William Lane Craig Mark Driscoll Gerry Breshears	John Dahms Samuel Miller Roger Beckwith Andreas Kӧstenberger Scott Swain Jung S. Rhee Donald Macleod Robert Letham Fred Sanders Keith E. Johnson Kevin Giles

Giles gives credit to Korean theologian Jung S. Rhee who argues that Charles Hodge, his son A. A. Hodge and B. B. Warfield laid the ground work to abandon the doctrine as they expressed serious questions and doubts about the it. (30-31)

Why does such a distinguished list of Evangelical thinkers want to get rid of this doctrine? Giles offers a summary of objections:

1)      It has no ‘biblical warrant.’ This is their first and most important objection.

2)      It reflects Neo-Platonic thinking about God more than Christian thinking.

3)      It makes no sense.

4)      Nothing theologically important is lost if it is abandoned.

5)      There are better ways to eternally differentiate the Father and the Son.

6)      It implies or necessarily involves the eternal subordination of the Son, even the Arian heresy. (36-37)

Giles says that while the book is not structured around these objections he “will address them all.” (37) This looks to be a very promising read.