Imitation of Christ
[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.
[4] By the 4th century, the ideal of the imitation of Christ was well accepted and for Saint Augustine, it was the ultimate goal of conversion, and the fundamental purpose of Christian life.
[3] This period also witnessed a growing trend towards the denial of the flesh in favor of the soul among the monastic communities, who saw the rebuffing of the physical body (as an imitation of the sufferings of Christ) as a path to a higher level of spiritual achievement.
[3] In the 12th century, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux considered humility and love as key examples of the imitation of Christ.
[13] 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.
[14] Chief among these were the followers of Saint Francis of Assisi, who believed in the physical as well as the spiritual imitation of Christ.
[17] 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.
[9] The book places a high level of emphasis on the devotion to the Eucharist as key element of spiritual life.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola continued to advocate the path towards imitation and encouraged a sense of "being with Christ" and experiencing his humanity, e.g. in his Spiritual Exercises he asks the participant to imagine being in Calvary at the foot of the Cross, communing with Jesus on the Cross.
[3][18] The concept of the imitation of Christ has had a Christological context and implications from the very early days of formalized Christian theology.
