Daniel Thompson: The Bible on the Wilderness

In class we talked a little about how the Bible incorporates the wilderness into its various books. The Bible shows us the wilderness is a place of teaching, learning and recentering. Regarding recentering, this acts as an axis mundi for believers. I think this 'recentering' is just the focus on oneself, sort of like kenosis, but also clearing the mind of outside influences. This is different from kenosis in the fact that the person is not necessarily focusing on God but rather on becoming absent from all things. In this sense the kenosis is the same except it lacks God. But God can be present if what they need recentering on is in fact God. I found these different meanings to be interesting in the relation between sacred communication, kenosis, and the wilderness.

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