Imitating Christ: The Disputed Character of Christian Discipleship

Is discipleship about personal sanctification or social reform?

There’s a rift among Christians on a question central to our identity: what does it mean to follow Jesus? For centuries, imitating Christ meant the pursuit of holiness, conforming the self to Jesus through self-sacrifice in order to join him in eternal life. But some Christians today consider this model to be self-centered. Instead, true disciples ought to imitate Jesus in confronting corrupt social systems on behalf of the oppressed.

In Imitating Christ, esteemed New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson seeks the origin of this fissure. Surveying the New Testament, medieval mysticism, modern theology, and more, Johnson shows how the twentieth-century social gospel and liberation theology created a new model of discipleship. He then evaluates the theological implications of the two models and asks what we can learn from each. Inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Thomas Merton, Johnson puts forward a vision of discipleship that can revitalize Christian witness in the world today.

Replete with keen exegesis and devotional classics, Imitating Christ reorients Christian living toward pursuing sainthood. Pastors and interested lay readers alike will rediscover our rich spiritual heritage in these pages.