Imitation of Christ - Christology

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. Those issues were mostly resolved, however, as Monophysitism was declared heretical by the Western Church and much of the Eastern Church.

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.