Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Imitation of Christ
To take the life and example of Christ as the constant pattern to study and conform one’s whole life to, so that conduct, not curiosity, becomes the measure of understanding.
Imitation of Christ: Make Christ’s life your daily study; read to become like him, not merely to know about him (“conform his whole life to that mind of Christ”). Test learning by whether it makes you humbler and kinder. Carry the pattern into small ordinary acts. Hold the gap with mercy, not self-punishment.
What it is
The imitatio Christi is à Kempis’s foundational practice and the work’s namesake: to make the life of Jesus the chief object of study and the pattern of one’s own conduct. It is not primarily admiration or doctrine; it is conformity — letting the example reshape how one actually lives. à Kempis opens the whole book with it: “Let it be our most earnest study, therefore, to dwell upon the life of Jesus Christ” (Bk 1, Ch 1).
His sharper claim is that understanding follows imitation, not the reverse: “He, therefore, that will fully and with true wisdom understand the words of Christ, let him strive to conform his whole life to that mind of Christ” (Bk 1, Ch 1).
Knowledge that does not change the life he counts as vanity — “I had rather feel contrition than be skilful in the definition thereof.” It operationalizes identity as the seedbed of conduct (The Inner Creates the Outer), the discipline of self-conforming (The Inner Creates the Outer), and pattern laid down by repetition (The Inner Creates the Outer).
(Distinct file note: no general “imitation of Christ” or exemplar-modelling practice exists in the library; this is à Kempis’s medieval devotional version — conform-then-understand — not a modern role-model technique.)
The Method
As à Kempis counsels it (a disposition and discipline more than a step-routine):
- Make Christ’s life your daily study. Read and meditate on the Gospels and his life slowly and habitually, returning to it as the one pattern: “Let it be our most earnest study. to dwell upon the life of Jesus Christ” (Bk 1, Ch 1).
- Aim at conformity, not curiosity. Read in order to become like what you study, not merely to know about it: “let him strive to conform his whole life to that mind of Christ” (Bk 1, Ch 1).
- Prefer being to defining. Test learning by whether it makes you humbler and better, not cleverer: “I had rather feel contrition than be skilful in the definition thereof” (Bk 1, Ch 1).
- Carry the pattern into ordinary acts. Let the example govern small concrete choices — patience, lowliness, charity — so the imitation is lived, not theorised. à Kempis prizes “a lowly peasant who serveth God” over “a proud philosopher” (Bk 1, Ch 2).
- Hold it with humility and mercy. The pattern is exalted; bear your shortfall gently, leaning on contrition rather than self-punishment. (Sourcing note: all quotations above are from Book 1, Chapters 1–2 of standard public-domain English translations of The Imitation of Christ.)
Source & Lineage
Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471) was a German-Dutch canon regular of the Devotio Moderna (“Modern Devotion”), a late-medieval reform movement stressing inward, practical piety over speculative theology.
The Imitation of Christ (composed c. 1418–1427) became, after the Bible, one of the most widely read Christian devotional works. The imitatio Christi theme is ancient — rooted in Paul’s “be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ” — but à Kempis gave it its most influential practical handbook form. → author id thomas a kempis.
Common refinements
Studying for knowledge, not change. à Kempis’s whole correction: conformity precedes understanding; don’t collect doctrine you never live.
- Perfectionism / scrupulosity. Measuring oneself against a flawless exemplar can breed shame; à Kempis intends humility and contrition, not self-attack — hold the gap mercifully.
- Big gestures over small fidelity. The pattern is meant for ordinary acts (patience, lowliness), not dramatic feats.
- Imitation as performance. It is inward conformity of “mind,” not outward display of piety.