Conformitas Christi......

L Gregory Jones writes theological ethics. In his approach, the credibility of any theological assertion has to be established through the Christian practices such theologising engenders. Theology to be real has to be embodied, not only in the individual, but in the community that takes the name of Christ. What is believed is most authentically expressed not in words and articulation, but in practice and performance of a life shaped by Christ.

Here's a couple of paragraphs from Transformed Judgment. Toward a Trinitarian Account of the Moral Life (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2008) that have had me thinking again about the how, and why and what of following after Christ. The painting by Caravaggio is a favourite - the young Jesus inviting middle aged Peter and Andrew to follow him.

What is needed is a way of speaking of the prior action of God, namely the saving life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which also calls forth an account of the shape human activity is to take in response. Such an emphasis is found by recovering the relationship between being conformed to Christ and being called to imitate - or as I think is preferable language, to pattern one's life in - Christ. God befriends humanity in Jesus Christ, and in that gracious action, which originates in God alone, humanity is conformed to Christ independently of particular characters, virtues and actions. Grace is the fundamental orientation of Christian life. The context of this conformitas Christi is discovered in the salvation wrought by Christ; it is a salvation revealed throughout the context of his life, deathn and resurrection.

In the light of Jesus friendship, the Christian's vocation, in response to God's prior action in Christ conforming humanity to his righteousness, is to pattern her life in Jesus Christ through discipleship.A person is called and enabled to pattern her life in Jesus Christ because God in Christ has patterned human life into God's life in order to save humanity. Such practices as baptism, eucharist, forgiveness-reconciliation and "performing" the Scriptures are indispensable practices, whereby people learn to become disciples, whereby people learn to be frinds of God and to befriend and be befriended by others. Through such practices, people are aenabled to acquire the habits and skills reflective of the pattern discovered in Jesus Christ." (pages 110-11)

That's about as attractive and complete an account of following after Christ as I've read for a long while. Conformitas Christi. Wouldn't mind a T-shirt with that on it -

Conformitas Christi!

Comments

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Yes. Even trying (and dear knows in a very inadequate way) to be conformed to Christ, causes comment. There are attitudes one cannot take towards the guilty, the unfortunate. An easy assumption of our superiority no longer to be made .... it does not go down well, sometimes.

[Jim Gordon]

Hello again Rosemary. Of course conformity to christ isn't something we do in our own strength - it is the work of God that we are being conformed to the image of Christ. The passive voice is an important theological corrective reminding us of what Jones calls 'that gracious action, which originates in God alone, humanity is conformed to Christ.'

by a very long way the most significant book I know on forgiveness-reconciliation as conformity to christ, and that conformity embodied in Christian community, is Jones' major book Embodying Forgiveness. A Theological Analysis. (Eerdmans, 1995). This along with Miroslave Volf's Exclusion and Embrace, and David Augsburger's Dissident Discipleship says just about all that needs saying about the radical demand and radical grace that coincide in a lived yet enabled obedience to Christ. And they each acknowledge the humility and realism that I think informs your overall comment.