Imitation in Early Christianity: Mimesis and Religious-Ethical Formation

What did exhortations to “follow Jesus” or “imitate Christ” mean to early Christians?

Cornelis Bennema examines mimesis as a religious-ethical concept in early Christianity—the imitation of Jesus (and other exemplars) to become a better, more Christlike person. Situating appeals for imitation in the New Testament and Apostolic Fathers within the cultural and social context of the broader Greco-Roman world, Bennema shows how early Christian mimesis was not about literal replication, but ins...