Иса Мәсіхтің үлгісін ұстану тәжірибесі

Practice of following the example of Jesus

In Christian theology, the imitation of Christ is the practice of following the example of Jesus. In Eastern Christianity, the term life in Christ is sometimes used for the same concept. References to this concept and its practice are found in the earliest Christian documents, e. g. the Pauline Epistles. 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. 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. Book 7 of the Confessions of St. Augustine includes a well known passage on "at least imitate the lowly God" that confirms the strong Christian tradition of the imitation of Christ around the year 400. Thus for Augustine, the imitation of Christ is enabled by the Spirit who confers God's grace.]] In the 12th century, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux considered humility and love as key examples of the imitation of Christ. Early in the 13th century, groups of mendicant friars entered the scene, aiming to imitate Christ by living a life of poverty as well as preaching, as Jesus had done, and following him to martyrdom, if necessary. Chief among these were the followers of Saint Francis of Assisi, who believed in the physical as well as the spiritual imitation of Christ. He was also the first reported case of stigmata in the history of Christianity, and reportedly viewed his stigmata as a key element of his imitation of Christ. Cabasilas also believed that the Eucharist forms the new life in Christ. In the highly influential book The Imitation of Christ first issued in 1418, Thomas à Kempis provided specific instructions for imitating Christ. The approach taken by Kempis is characterized by its emphasis on the interior life and withdrawal from the world, as opposed to an active imitation of Christ (including outward preaching) by other friars.

The concept of the imitation of Christ has had a Christological context and implications from the very early days of formalized Christian theology. In the context of the Person of Christ, the belief in Monophysitism, which asserted only one divine nature for Christ with no human nature ran against the ideal that humans could imitate him. The acceptance of a human (as well as a divine) nature for Christ by many Christians allowed the pursuit of the goal of the imitation of Christ, but with the realizations that it had inherent limits, e. g. that Christ's death in obedience to the will of the Father had a redemptive value beyond human potential. While Western Christology of the "imitation of Christ" has had a focus on the sacrifice at Calvary, that has not been the main theme in the Eastern Church where the term "life in Christ" has been used and the key focus has been the Transfiguration of Jesus. No saints in the Eastern Church have reported signs of stigmata, but saints in the Eastern Church have frequently reported being transformed by the "inward light" of uncreated grace. A further Christological issue that differentiates the Eastern and Western approaches is that the Eastern approach sees the Father as the sole hypostatic source of the Holy Spirit. Thus in contrast to Augustine and Aquinas, Eastern Christology does not see the Holy Spirit as the bond of love between the Father and the Son and hence the imitation of the Son does not have the same implications in terms of a unity with the Father.