Greco-Christian stream·The Imitation of Christ·Book III — On Inward Consolation·Chapter XLI. Of Contempt Of All Temporal Honour
XLI. Contempt of all temporal honour
Temporal honour as the great snare. Not in itself sinful, but easily becomes that which the soul looks for instead of God. The disciple's contempt — not for the persons who give honour, but for the honour itself as having no power to give the soul its real worth.
Source context
- Theme
- renunciation of temporal honour and the soul's withdrawal from worldly esteem
- Soul-faculty
- Consciousness Soul
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Stoic philosophy (Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius)Stoic ethics treats external honour as an 'indifferent' (adiaphoron), locating worth entirely in the interior disposition of the rational will — a structural parallel to the chapter's counsel that temporal glory is without spiritual substance.
- Vedanta (Bhagavad Gita, nishkama karma)The Gita's teaching on action without attachment to fruits and results, including social recognition, exhibits cross-tradition congruence with the Imitation's insistence that the soul must be unmoved by the conferral or withdrawal of external honour.
- Sufi ethics (fana, the annihilation of the ego-self)Sufi accounts of fana identify the desire for personal reputation as a veil obstructing the soul's union with the divine — structurally congruent with the chapter's warning against seeking worldly distinction.
Chapter XLI. Of Contempt Of All Temporal Honour
OF CONTEMPT OF ALL TEMPORAL HONOUR
"My Son, make it no matter of thine, if thou see others honoured and exalted, and thyself despised and humbled. Lift up thine heart to Me in heaven, and then the contempt of men upon earth will not make thee sad."
2O Lord, we are in blindness, and are quickly seduced by vanity. If I look rightly within myself, never was injury done unto me by any creature, and therefore I have nought whereof to complain before Thee. But because I have many times and grievously sinned against Thee, all creatures do justly take arms against me. Therefore to me confusion and contempt are justly due, but to Thee praise and honour and glory. And except I dispose myself for this, namely, to be willing that every creature should despise and desert me, and that I should be esteemed altogether as nothing, I cannot be inwardly filled with peace and strength, nor spiritually enlightened, nor fully united to Thee.
JSON: /api/sources/imitation-of-christ/imit-book-3/79-chapter-xli-of-contempt-of-all-temporal-honour.json