MIMESIS. - From μίμησις, it means imitation. It is a concept on which, probably already in the most ancient historical cultures, the interpretation and the motivation of cultic rites and religious prescriptions were based.

In Greek thought the concept of m. is differentiated and further determined in its cosmological-metaphysical, moral and religious applications. Plato defines worldly things as imitations (μίμησις, εἰκόνες) of invisible realities, ultimately of the idea of the good (Tim., 38 a, 48 e). The analogous determination of the moral virtues as imitation of God (Theaet., 176) is closely connected with this cosmological doctrine. In Stoicism, alongside the more characteristic conception of ἀκολώθειαις, the idea of the imitation of God or of deified nature is taken up again (Cicero, Tusc., V, 70; Seneca, De ira, II, 16 and Epist., 95, 50). The concept lives again in Christianity, where, however, the imitation of God in the spiritual life is motivated by the interior assimilation to the divine nature effected by Grace.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: G. Kittel, s. v. Μυτῷσιαι, in Theol. Wörterbuch zum N. T., IV, Stuttgart 1948, pp. 661-78; E. G. Gulin, Die Nachfolge Gottes, in Studia Orientalia, 1 (1925), pp. 34-50; H. Willms, ΕΙΚΩΝ. Eine begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuch. zum Neoplatonismus, I, Münster 1935; I. Hausherr, L'imitation de Jésus-Christ dans la spiritualité byzantine, in Mélanges Cavallers, Toulouse 1948, pp. 231-59.

Beda Thum

@incollection{ec8_mimesi, author = {Thum, Beda}, title = {Mimesi}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {1016}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/mimesi} }

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Mimesis

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