The Wilderness as Initiatory Space
The wilderness is neither Egypt nor Promised Land. It is the between-place.
There:
- old identity dies;
- dependence is learned;
- complaints arise;
- temptation appears;
- miracles sustain;
- the generation formed in slavery gradually passes away.
This is an initiatory liminal zone.
Later:
- Elijah enters wilderness;
- John the Baptist lives in wilderness;
- Jesus undergoes wilderness temptation;
- monks and desert fathers return to wilderness.
- The grail knights enter into the forest and wilderness to seek the chalice