Criticisms
Friedrich Nietzsche was critical of the book and stated that this was "one of those books that I cannot pick up without a physiological feeling of repulsion."
Hans Urs von Balthasar criticized the book on the grounds that it was written for monastics seeking to withdraw from the world, and that it was severely lacking for those called to do Christ-like ministry in the world. He wrote, "... there is something strangely opaque about it. It rejects and eliminates every speculative element not only of scholasticism but also of mysticism.... All remains is a flight from the world, a world that has not been brought home in Christ."
René Girard wrote: "Neither does Jesus propose an ascetic rule of life in the sense of Thomas a Kempis and his celebrated Imitation of Christ, as admirable as that work may be."
Read more about this topic: The Imitation Of Christ
Famous quotes containing the word criticisms:
“I have no concern with any economic criticisms of the communist system; I cannot enquire into whether the abolition of private property is expedient or advantageous. But I am able to recognize that the psychological premises on which the system is based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression of one of its instruments ... but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes.”
—William James (1842–1910)