Imitation of Christ
Practice of following the example of Jesus / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In Christian theology, the imitation of Christ is the practice of following the example of Jesus.[1][2][3] In Eastern Christianity, the term life in Christ is sometimes used for the same concept.[1]
The ideal of the imitation of Christ has been an important element of both Christian ethics and spirituality.[4] References to this concept and its practice are found in the earliest Christian documents, e.g. the Pauline Epistles.[3]
Saint Augustine viewed the imitation of Christ as the fundamental purpose of Christian life, and as a remedy for the imitation of the sins of Adam.[5][6] Saint Francis of Assisi believed in the physical as well as the spiritual imitation of Christ, and advocated a path of poverty and preaching like Jesus who was poor at birth in the manger and died naked on the cross.[7][8] Thomas à Kempis, on the other hand, presented a path to The Imitation of Christ based on a focus on the interior life and withdrawal from the world.[9]
The theme of imitation of Christ existed in all phases of Byzantine theology, and in the 14th-century book Life in Christ Nicholas Cabasilas viewed "living one's own personal life" in Christ as the fundamental Christian virtue.[1][10]