Imitatio and Piosity -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 21:51:06 03/03/08 Mon
Author: CS Holden
Subject: Imitatio and Piosity

I'm not a fan of being the devil's advocate for no good reason, but I have to take issue with the Judeo-Christian "imitatio Christi" practice. I think it can go too far. I don't mean that the imitation of Christ is itself a bad idea, but I mean false piosity, which is itself a selfish act (I mean the holier-than-thou, "more humble than everyone else," as a half-joke). So I guess I'm not so much against the imitation of Christ as I am just trying to point out that people can get away with a lot of things if they just claim to be imitating Christ.

By claiming Christ as my model, I can easily use this to make myself a model for other people, can I not? Granted, I may not be genuine in my claim to be self-sacrificial. I can take advantage of this in any number of ways, especially if I attract any sort of following. Not a few people have claimed to be Christ reincarnated, and while I doubt their mental stability and the mental stability of their followers, should it not give people pause when the idea of "imitating Christ" gets popular? The closer this kind of Subject gets to resembling Christ, the higher the risk--or so it seems to me--of the so called Messiah turning out to be a Dionysus, not a Christ. We're all human, after all...which may be the thread that unravels my question, now that I think about it.

Still, I think the generic idea of "imitating Christ" is dangerous if it's not clear to the disciple that this kind of imitation is different from the kind of interdividual mimetic behavior that leads to violence. It also begs the question of whether a true Christian considers Christ the model or the object. In attempting to imitate Christ, I may accidentally begin to imitate my pastor, or the person sitting next to me in a theology class, or some televangelist I see on TV. Soon enough, the object (Christ) in this case could easily disappear, and suddenly any Christlike tendencies go out the window. Do the Gospels (or Girard, for that matter) give any clear markers of a false "imitatio Christi," or is it not even a structural question to begin with?

What's the line between a true imitation of Christ and a false one? Or is the real question, can humans ever "truly" imitate Christ?

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Replies:

Re: Imitatio and Piosity -- Betsy Peters, 05:54:12 03/04/08 Tue
- Re: Imitatio and Piosity -- CS Holden, 12:58:31 03/04/08 Tue
  - Re: Imitatio and Piosity -- Cara, 18:26:49 03/08/08 Sat