Only the Bible has been more influential as a source of Christian devotional reading than <b>The Imitation of Christ</b>. This meditation on the spiritual life has inspired readers from Thomas More and St. Ignatius Loyola to Thomas Merton and Pope John Paul II. Written by the Augustinian monk Thomas à; Kempis between 1420 and 1427, it contains clear instructions for renouncing wordly vanities and locating eternal truths.  No book has more explicitly and movingly described the Christian ideal: "My son, to the degree that you can leave yourself behind, to that degree will you be able to enter into Me." With a new Foreword by Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight and chief executive officer of the Knights of Columbus.