In the last few weeks, I finished reading UD aka Unlikely Disciple then had discussions in class about pilgrimage and how it is applied to the UD. We also discussed… Well we actually went over the two models of religion; Eliade and Turner.
The Eliade model contained ideas that the Earth was like lunch meat or the peanut butter in the middle. Heaven and Hell are the bread pieces, moreover, the two are connected by Earth’s ladder. Furthermore, in the Eliade’s model we also went over what was an axis mundi, which is the center of the world, and also the highest point that was supposed to be the ladder to Heaven. The axis mundi was also a sacred place/thing and to live near the axis mundi would only ensure the person’s chances to get into Heaven. The further away a person is from the axis mundi, the less chance they get to enter Heaven, but they have an easier access to Hell. We also discussed about how sacrifices were made to keep the axis mundi sacred and that believers of that faith had to reenact the events that happened to keep chaos from destroying/damaging the axis mundi. An example of an axis mundi would be church steeples or the Native American’s totem poles.
The Turner model described pilgrimage as a journey to a sacred place to better understand the place the person came from. The journey starts with leaving the place of convention or a place one is comfortable in. Next, the person will experience limen or the transition from a single person phase to a group. Afterwards, the person will reach anti-structure and will start from nothing, then the person will join in another community/communita. Later, the person will have their metaphorical death because they are reborn a new person or they have discovered themselves. Finally they make their return to their original place and are a new person.
In my perspective, UD would fit in with the Turner model because Kevin Roose left Brown University to attend Liberty for a semester. At Liberty, Kevin got in a new clique, the Liberty clique, and he made friends there at the Liberty community. After many months at Liberty, Kevin changed and so did some of his past prejudice views of Liberty students. He basically metaphorically killed himself and was reborn as a new Kevin, and after a semester at Liberty he came back to Brown.