41 pages • 1 hour read
Charles SheldonIn His Steps
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1896A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Love of Neighbor
The novel as a whole is a panegyric to Christian charity and the necessity for Christians to imitate Jesus in living out the greatest commandment: to love God with one’s whole heart, mind, and soul, and to love one’s neighbor as one’s very self. The congregation of the First Church of Raymond has expertise in self-love and comfort, easily building up and maintaining the appearance of well-to-do lives instilled with blessing and peace. In many instances, however, it is a façade, and Rev. Maxwell commits to exposing the rotten underbelly of the community by challenging them to really and truly commit to living the Gospel as it is presented in the Bible.
The pledge-takers’ sacrifices are first felt only lightly, but they end up transforming the town of Raymond, restoring the Rectangle, and inspiring many of the Nazareth Church in Chicago to similar heights in the establishment of the Settlement. In the concrete, individuals are loved in a way they may never have experienced before: Jack Manning the wandering homeless man, Loreen from the Rectangle, and Burns who is recovering from alcoholism. In a more universal way, the people of Raymond experience transformation by the grace poured out on their small community, and in turn they are able to share the love of God with their neighbors in the Rectangle. The movement as a whole results in the establishment of the Settlement in Chicago; each new development is a new opportunity for a new person in a new community to experience love and compassion in a real and abiding way.
If they hadn’t made the pledge dreamed up by Rev. Maxwell, certain members of the Raymond congregation may perhaps have gone their entire lives without knowing what it meant to love their neighbors in the way demanded by the very Christ they claimed to serve and worship. This, however, is not unique to Raymond, as many people seem to go their entire lives without radical dedication to anything. The call to love is the central theme of the Gospel message, and it is, according to the New Testament, the identifying mark of the Christian—”By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35, RSV). It is even the very name of the Christian God: “God is love” (1 John 4:8, RSV).
Imitation of Christ
One of the most ancient Christian devotional practices is the imitatio Christi, which means “the imitation of Christ” in Latin. This practice is the purposeful imitation of the words, deeds, virtues, and general demeanor of Jesus as portrayed in the narratives of the four Gospels of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. While the novel’s portrayal of imitatio Christi is particularly Protestant—and thus relatively modern—it has roots in this ancient Christian practice.
The novel’s central dictum—”What Would Jesus Do?”—is a very practical way of trying to imitate Christ and live out the call to discipleship by denying one’s selfish desires and devoting oneself to loving God and neighbors. While each of the characters interprets this simple question in different ways, the goal is always the same. The pledge thus leads to a genuine friendship between all those who make the year-long promise of imitatio Christi. While the characters readily admit that there is often no way to be certain how Jesus would act in any particular situation, they conclude that if they become increasingly familiar with the person of Jesus in prayer and in scripture, they will be increasingly united to him in reality and thus capable of truly answering the question conscientiously.
The question of the imitation of Christ is very often speculative. The characters face new challenges since many of their problems were never directly dealt with by Jesus: whether to join the opera, how to distribute extravagant wealth, what kind of novel to author, or how to vote in a particular election. The most important thing in all of this is the fidelity to shared first principles and a desire to live a truly Christian life. Every person makes different decisions and takes different paths, and there is even disagreement at times, but all are united in the desire to act and speak as Christ would want.
Sacrifice & Self-Denial
The members of the First Church of Raymond are all introduced as living relatively privileged lives, and while most are not aristocratic or uncommonly wealthy, none of them is pictured as disadvantaged. They are confronted one day, however, with the reality of poverty: Jack Manning comes to town and challenges the congregation by asking whether they are truly living in accordance with their ostensible Christian faith.
When the members of the church who make the pledge begin to fulfill their promise, they begin to see what real sacrifice and real self-denial look like; they are driven to give up long held dreams or give away millions of dollars for the sake of the common good. When the group becomes more committed to the cause by spending time at the Rectangle, they encounter people who live in poverty and misery but who are attempting to make something better of their lives. While the gifts that they use for the good of others and the material goods that they give up do not approach that same level of sacrifice, they are on the way to familiarizing themselves with the human condition as they step outside of their comfort zones.
The characters who make the most explicit move to practice self-denial are Dr. Bruce and Bishop Hampton. Both men freely give up their privileged positions of influence and move into downtown Chicago in order to establish a halfway house, personally donating generously to fund the project. Intent on recovering something of the martyr’s spirit and courage, the two men hope not only to help others but also to bear witness to the great love of Christ in the world. They are inspired by grace to abandon their worldly positions for the sake of the kingdom and the greater good.
