Thomas a Kempis
Augustinian monk whose Imitation of Christ is the second-most-translated Christian book after the Bible.
Thomas a Kempis was a German-Dutch Augustinian monk who spent most of his life at the monastery of Mount Saint Agnes near Zwolle in the Netherlands. He is the probable author of the Imitation of Christ, written between roughly 1418 and 1427, a handbook of interior spiritual life that has been translated into more languages than any Christian book except the Bible itself. The Imitation is notable for its insistence that learning, eloquence, and outward religious observance count for nothing without humility and a transformed heart. Its prayers reflect this: short, contrite, focused on the work of conforming oneself to Christ rather than on theological speculation. John Wesley recommended the Imitation as one of the foundational texts of Methodist devotion, and it has been read with equal devotion by Catholics, Protestants, and many readers outside the Christian tradition.