ABSTRACT
Suggestively enough, the Danish edition of Thomas à Kempis’ De imitatione Christi (1472) is titled Om Christi Efterfølgelse.1 The canonical Dictionary of the Danish Language associates the term Efterfølgelseprimarily with the earnest appropriation of a Christian ideal content or goal.2 Apropos of the related noun, Efterfølge, now hardly used, the same source explains it as an effect, result, or consequence, counting Kierkegaard as the only author who ascribes such a causal sense to it.3 The infinitive form (at efterfølge), which is the most common, means-besides to arrive after somebody or to take over someone’s position-to aim at something and to strive for an action in conformity with a given precept or moral principle, but also to take a person as model and subsequently try to emulate him or her.4
