Thursday, July 25, 2024

It is the 25th of July 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

We continue on our tour, this summer, of the biggest names and events and, like yesterday- even furniture.

And today is no exception as the individual we are looking at and his movement is famous, but even so still perhaps underrated.

But I’m tempted to start with the story about our man, he is Thomas A Kempis 1380-1471, a story that has the unfortunate property of being untrue. Yeah. Fiction. Fairy tale. Fugaze.

But even those can tell us something. Thomas A Kempis is no stranger to this show—he’s a legend, and his book “The Imitation of Christ” was probably the best-selling book in the early modern era behind the Bible. Big stuff.

So, some asked: why isn’t he “St.” Thomas A Kempis?

And nature abhors a vacuum, and a good question, a compelling answer.

“There must have been some kind of mistake, a clerical error” (which is also a pun)

“No record, just not a saint.”

Ok- so, what happened. Here’s the popular story. He was going to be. Things got busy right after he died, but a little while later they exhumed his body to check it out- see if maybe it was not yet corrupted or the like.

And, in the story, they find the top of the coffin, on the inside, marked with fingernail scrapings… he was buried alive! He said he was taking a nap… so if no one was there for his actual death, how could they know he died in a state of grace and in faith therefore… he is “venerable” but no “saint”.

Cool story.

Here’s the deal, in the Middle Ages everyone wasn’t made a saint like they were during the Counter Reformation and today. It was a MUCH higher bar then.  

[It’s like before Cooperstown had Jack Morris]

And Thomas is huge, in retrospect, but he was at first a privileged son of a blacksmith who followed his bother into a monastery and began copying texts- including the Bible 4 times and the writings of Bernard of Clairvaux and Augustine.  

The Imitation of Christ would show up around 1418, but without an author attributed to it. Thomas, who it is very reasonable to assume did write it, did not put his name on it as a work extolling humility might be expected to. We have no early textural or first generation attestation but the arguments against pertain to vocabulary and grammar and offer no substantive reason to look for another author.

The book took off for a number of reasons. Please let me tap the sign again: your book title and cover matter more than you think because most people don’t read the books they buy.

I read A LOT of books and have so many I have not read… no offense. “The Imitation of Christ” is an imminently practical title- a “how to” but, despite its critics, it is more than that. It is a repository of New Testament quotations from Augustine and St. Bernard.

The book is almost small and written in small, almost aphoristic style chapters. As a member of the movement called “the Brethren of the Common Life,” he was affected by the Devotio Moderna- the new brand of Christian spirituality that would upset the Western church.  

This is another reason our man is not sainted- no scratched-insides-of-coffins needed. The Devotio Moderna was an “Augustinian” “Mystical” movement- let me explain. Augustinians follow the saint into introspection and contemplation and a deep awareness of their own sin. “Mystical” refers to the “immediate” nature of the faith- that is, “without means,” although he points believers to the Lord’s Supper for tangible things. But this “without means” would trickle into the coming reformation- many in the Netherlands and out of the Brethren of the Common Life.

Once again- the medieval mystics, like A Kempis, represent another stream of Christians in the Western church calling for reform in the lead up to the 16th century. We Protestants do well to mark continuity with the church- ours movement is not the result of a bug in one guys bonnet but a collective movement pushing for change over time.

A Kempis- or just  “Kempis”- that would be hard today for boarding passes says “van voorhis”.

Thomas died on this, the 25th of July in 1471- he was reportedly as old as 91 years old.

 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary- from John 6:

42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 25th of July 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who asks for just a few more checks to make sure… splash some water on his face… no burying alive… He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who typed “incorrupt… uncorrupt… not yet corrupted.” I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.