Girolamo Savonarola’s The Simplicity of the Christian Life is actually a discussion of the nature of the good life. He is seeking to answer the question, “What makes people happy?”
Of all created things, writes Savonarola, only humans have to struggle to discover their proper role in the whole scheme of things. We are the only ones who seek for meaning, purpose, happiness.
The blessed life, says Savonarola, is not found in primarily sensual pursuits, nor in intellectual pursuits, nor even in spiritual pursuits, as normally understood. No the happy life is rooted in the grace of God and discovered in imitating the life and teachings of Jesus.
The main means through which this simple life of Imitatio Christi occurs are prayer and love. Having laid the foundation, Savonarola proceeds with two crucial chapters: “Simplicity of the Heart” and “Exterior Simplicity.”
“Each Christian,” declared Savonarola, “ought to try to come to perfect simplicity of the heart.” Even the natural order witnesses to the fact that the more inwardly simple or unified something is the more perfect it is. In the spiritual realm, this inner heart simplicity is discovered in having the crucified Christ as the unifying force of all our affections and aspirations.
Exterior simplicity flows from this true interior simplicity… In even stronger language, he goes on to add, “He who does not love exterior simplicity is not able to live the Christian life.”
Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) in De Simplicitate Christianae Vitae, 64-65, 188. cf. Richard Foster in Freedom of Simplicity (New York: HarperCollins, 1981) 88-89.