Imitating Christ: The Disputed Character of Christian Discipleship

by Luke Timothy Johnson

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2024

Overview

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.

Key Features

• Puts forward a vision of discipleship that can revitalize Christian witness in the world today
• Shows how the twentieth-century social gospel and liberation theology created a new model of discipleship
• Surveys the New Testament, medieval mysticism, modern theology, and more

Product Details

• Title: Imitating Christ: The Disputed Character of Christian Discipleship
• Author: Luke Timothy Johnson
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2024
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 220
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Christian life; Social justice › Religious aspects--Christianity
• ISBNs: 9780802883100, 9781467466479, 0802883109, 1467466476
• Resource ID: LLS:MTHCHSTDCCD
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-08-22T20:35:25Z

About Luke Timothy Johnson

New Testament scholar and early Christianity historian, Luke Timothy Johnson (1943–), is the Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University. Professor Johnson earned his BA in Philosophy from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, an MDiv in Theology from Saint Meinrad School of Theology, an MA in Religious Studies from Indiana University, and his PhD in New Testament Studies from Yale University. A former Benedictine monk, Johnson has taught at Yale Divinity School and Indiana University. He is the author of more than 20 books, has published a large number of scholarly and popular articles, anthologies, book reviews, and other academic papers, and lectures and received several awards for excellence in teaching. He often lectures at universities and seminaries worldwide, where he is widely perceived as the leading conservative scholar on the debates surrounding the Jesus Seminar, taking stances against its view of Jesus.