Mark Galli has a neat little editorial in Christiantiy Today talking about
when imitating Christ is superficial theology, using the book What Would Jesus Eat? as an sterling example of good intentions gone loopy.
While I have to concede his basic point (what would Jesus eat?????), I think he dismisses the concept too quickly. Dallas Willard and John Ortberg (who doesn’t seem to have a website) do marvelous jobs of demonstrating how it is possible to imitate Christ in a thoughtful, productive manner. In fact, I highly recommend Dallas Willard’s book The Spirit of the Disciplines as a life-changing guide to the imitation of Christ.