The Imitation of Christ is a charming instruction on how to love God. Protestants and Catholics alike join in giving it praise. John Wesley, Thomas Merton and John Newton all put it among the works that have deeply influenced them. Few books have had so extensive a circulation: Originally written in Latin in 1418 (we know of 545 different Latin editions), there are 1,000 different editions preserved in the British Museum alone. It has appeared in English since 1502. With Confessions of Augustine and Bunyan s The Pilgrim s Progress it occupies a front rank, if not the foremost place, among useful manuals of devotion. This small book, free from intellectual pretensions, has had great appeal to anyone interested in probing beneath the surface of life. The Imitation of Christ has come to be, after the Bible, the most widely translated book in Christian literature."