Thomas a Kempis' 'The Imitation of Christ' is one of the best known; as well as easy the most read, of Christian devotional works and aside from the Bible: is one of the most widely read and translated works in the world.

It is thus important to note that part of the message of Kempis in this work is often not remarked on largely because it is but a small element of the larger presentation and thus 'gets lost in translation'; if you will, between Kempis' pen and the mind of the reader.

This element is Kempis' comments on the subject of jews, which he delves into very occasionally in 'The Imitation of Christ'. His principal reference to the jews is found in the fortieth chapter of the third book. Where he relates:

'Let the Jews seek the glory that comes from another. I will seek that which comes from God alone. All human glory, all temporal honour, all worldly position is truly vanity and foolishness compared to Your everlasting glory. O my Truth, my Mercy, my God, O Blessed Trinity, to You alone be praise and honour, power and glory, throughout all the endless ages of ages.' (1)

In this excerpt Kempis informs us that the jews are; for him, outside of God's grace, because unlike Christians (they are however free to become Christians by sincere conversion) they don't seek to become truly one with God, but rather look to pursue temporal honour and worldly position in the place of faith. This; as Kempis frequently elaborates (and it is something of a trope among Christian mystics more broadly), places the jews as an anti-thesis to the Christian imitating Christ in Kempis' schema: with the sincere Christian as the incarnation of spiritual purity, while the jew is the incarnation of spiritual impurity.

This is further seen when Kempis comments in relation the situation that jews; along with other unbelievers, find themselves in. To wit:

'Oh,the wonderful and hidden grace of this Sacrament which only the faithful of Christ understand, which unbelievers and slaves of sin cannot experience! In it spiritual grace is conferred, lost virtue restored, and the beauty, marred by sin, repaired.' (2)

In other words Kempis is here saying that the jews as unbelievers cannot experience the full extent of the mysteries of Christ and therefore are cut off from both the means to their salvation (as without such intimate knowledge of Christ they are unlikely to convert to Christianity) as well as salvation itself. In other words Kempis believes that the jews are going straight to the lowest pits of hell when they die.

Kempis also styles the jews as being 'slaves of sin' (as they are unbelievers) and it is reasonable to read this as an indirect reference to the earlier point he makes about the jews being worldly materialistic creatures obsessed with money and their own advancement rather than knowing God (i.e. these are the specifics sins, which have enslaved the jews).

The idea that the jews are 'slaves of sin' that Kempis uses connects nicely with his statement that unbelievers; and he appears to be thinking particularly of jews here, are the servants of the devil, which reads thus:

'Be not disturbed, dispute not in your mind, answer not the doubts sent by the devil, but believe the words of God, believe His saints and prophets an the evil enemy will flee from you. It is often profitable for the servant of God to suffer such things. For Satan does not tempt unbelievers and sinners whom he already holds securely, but in many ways he does tempt and trouble the faithful servant.' (3)

In other words: if one is an unbeliever; which in Kempis' day meant one was either a heretic, jew or a Muslim (and jews were the enemy that Kempis would have encountered and known well), then one is a servant of the devil and we can also plausibly read that Kempis' envisioned that there was a schema of unbelief. Where those who had simply been lead astray; or were ignorant of Christianity, were actively being tempted into solid unbelief by the devil, while those who were deeply convinced of their unbelief (i.e. heretics, jews and Muslims) were no longer needing to be tempted and thus as such formed the devil's own missionary forces in his war against God and Christianity.

Thus we can see that Thomas a Kempis; in spite of all his fame, held a very negative and derogatory view of jews and is the kind of character who reminds the discerning reader of the militant and fairly brutally anti-jewish nature of medieval Christianity. Therefore making it all the more amusing that those who preach 'tolerance' and 'equality' have a tendency to cite 'The Imitation of Christ' as being an inspirational book (even if they don't believe in the truth of Christianity).

(1) Thomas a Kempis, 'The Imitation of Christ', 3:40
(2) Ibid. 4:2
(3) Ibid. 4:18

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This was originally published at the following address: http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot.com/2014/04/thomas-kempis-imitation-of-christ-and.html