THOMAS A’KEMPIS (1380-1471) was a Dutch priest, monk, and writer born in Kempen, Germany. He attended a school near Deventer in Holland. Thomas of Kempen, as he was known at school, was so impressed by his teachers that he decided to live his own life according to their ideals. When he was 19, he entered the monastery of Mount St. Agnes and spent the rest of his long life behind the walls of that monastery. Thomas wrote a number of sermons, letters, hymns, and lives of the saints. The most famous of his works, by far, is The Imitation of Christ, a charming instruction on how to love God. The Imitation of Christ has come to be, after the Bible, the most widely translated book in Christian literature.
DR. ROSALIE DE ROSSET is a professor of Literature, English and Homiletics at Moody Bible Institute where she has been for forty-two years. She earned her M.A. in English from Northeastern Illinois University, M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Rhetoric from The University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition to teaching, she regularly appears on Moody Broadcasting Network programs as a guest and co-host, and speaks at conferences and seminars. She lives on the northside of Chicago.
